
Class _Z.ia4- 

CopyrtghtN" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



pei:^ti:n"g and writing matekials 




JOHN GUTENBERG. 

[From Lacroix.] 



PRINTING AND WRITING 
MATERIALS: Their Evolution 

By ADELE MILLICENT SMITH 

DREXEL INSTITUTE 

SECRETARY TO THE PRESIDENT AND INSTRUCTOR IN 
PROOF-READING, AND AUTHOR OF " PROOF-READING 
AND PUNCTUATION" ::::::::::::::::::: 



PHILADELPHIA 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 

1901 



THE LIBRARY OF 

GONQRESS, 
Two CuMEa Received 

NOV, 9 1901 

Copyright ewtry 
CLASS €L 19ti. No. 

COPY a 



Copyright, 1900, by 

ADilLE MiLLICENT SMITH 

All rights reserved 






• • ••* •*! I *• * • • 



AVIL PRINTING COMPANY 

market and fortieth streets 

Philadelphia 



PREFACE 

TN the preparation of this handbook, the purpose 
has been to furnish in succinct form the leading 
facts relating to the history of printing, writing 
materials, and of bookbinding, and the processes 
by which they are made ready for general use. At 
present this information is usually found by labor- 
ious search through the pages of encyclopedias and 
other large volumes. While it is hoped that enough 
of general interest has been included to render the 
book pleasant reading, the aim has been also to 
supply a manual that will be useful for purposes 
of instruction. 

The descriptions of the methods of type-found- 
ing, typesetting, newspaper printing, paper-mak- 
ing, bookbinding, and of the reproductive pro- 
cesses have been obtained from the offices and 
(iii) 



iv PREFACE 



shops of companies of the highest standing, so that 
the information in each case coincides with what 
is actually practised in the workroom. 

The historical sketch of Bookbinding has been 
compiled from the works of such authorities on the 
subject as Joseph Cundall, W. Salt Brassington, S.T. 
Prideaux, Henri Bouchot, and Brander Matthews. 

The author desires to express her gratitude and 
indebtedness to the following persons and firms for 
important information respecting the various pro- 
cesses described : Mr. Theodore L. De Vinne, R. 
Hoe & Company, Mr. PhiHp T. Dodge, President 
of the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, the C. B. 
Cottrell & Sons Company, of New York ; the editors 
of The New York World and The New York Journal ; 
Mr. Henry Hoe, Sole Agent of Joseph Gillott & 
Sons, and Mr. John Winnacott, of New York; Mr. 
Talbert Lanston, of the Lanston Monotype Ma- 
chine Company, Washington, D. C; Mr. A. B. 
Daniels, of the L. L. Brown Paper Company, 



PREFACE V 

Adams, Massachusetts; Mr. H. A. Moses, of the 
Mittineague Paper Company, Mittineague, Massa- 
.chusetts ; Mi^s Mary H. Upton, of London, England ; 
Mr. Charles H. Clarke, Mr. Frank S. Holby, Mr. 
Edward Hill (foreman), of the Avil Printing Com- 
pany; Mr. J. Howard Avil, of the Phototype En- 
graving Company; Mr. J. Shoemaker, of the J. B. 
Lippincott Company; Mr. Charles R. Graham, of 
the Historical Publishing Company; Mr. A. E. 
Whiting, of the Whiting Paper Company; Mr. P.S. 
Collins, Manager of Circulation Bureau of the Cur- 
tis PubHshing Company ; Mr. W. Ross Wilson,'Mana- 
ger American Type-Founders Company; Mr. L. S. 
Bigelow, General Manager Keystone Type Foundry ; 
Messrs. Irwin N. Megargee & Company; Messrs. 
Theodore Leonhardt & Son; the Moore & White 
Company ; and the editors of The Evening Bulletin 
and the Sunday Press, of Philadelphia. Acknowl- 
edgments are also made to Mr. Brander Matthew^s, 
the Macmillan Company, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 



vi PREFACE 

R. Hoe & Company, the Mergenthaler Linotype 
Company, the American Type-Founders Company, 
the Avil Printing Company, and the Moore & White 
Company for plates furnished or kind permission 
to reproduce cuts for the illustration of the book. 
The author also makes grateful acknowledgment 
to President James Mac Alister, Professor Ernest 

A. Congdon, Professor Parke Schoch, Miss Alice 

B. Kroeger, Miss Harriet L. Mason, Miss Alice M. 
Brennan, and Miss Sarah W. Cattell, of the Drexel 
Institute, for valuable aid and suggestions given 
during the progress of the work. 

A. M. S. 
Philadelphia, 
October, 1901. 



CONTENTS 



PRINTING 

Page 

Introduction 3 

Chapter 

I. Ancient Relief Processes 6 

Babylonia and Assyria 6 

Egypt 8 

Greece and Rome 8 

Lack of Suitable Materials 12 

China and Japan 15 

11. Printing in Europe 17 

Image Prints 18 

Block-books 20 

III. Invention of Typography 27 

John Gutenberg 28 

John Fust 32 

Peter Schoeffer 33 

Lourens Janszoon Koster 35 

Spread of Typography 37 

IV. Early Printing-Presses 40 

Aldus Manutius 40 

Anthony Koberger 42 

Elzevir 43 



viii CONTENTS 

Chaptek Page 

Estienne 43 

Christopher Plantin 44 

V. England and America 47 

William Caxton 47 

Mexico 49 

South America 49 

United States 49 

VI. Type-founding 57 

VII. Typesetting 65 

VIII. History of the Printing-Press 72 

Early Presses of Wood — Guten- 
berg— Blaeu 72 

Iron Presses — Stanhope — Frank- 
lin — Columbian — Washington 73 

Job or Treadle-Presses 75 

Power Presses — Adams 77 

Cylinder Presses 77 

Composition Inking-RoUers 82 

Curved Plates 84 

The Continuous Web 85 

Hoe Web-Perfecting Presses .... 86 

Presses for Illustrated Work 87 

Cottrell Presses— Miehle—Goss . . 88 

Printing by Electricity 90 

Printing by Photography 92 



CONTENTS ix 

Chapter Page 

IX. Newspaper Printing 94 

The Consecutive Processes in 

the Printing of a Newspaper . . 94 
Output of the latest Hoe news- 
paper press 96 

Color-Printing 97 

The Electrotype Multi-Color Press 98 
The Combination Octuple Multi- 
Color Press 101 

Late News 103 

REPRODUCTIVE PROCESSES 

I. Stereotyping and Electrotyping . . 107 

II. Half-Tone and Line Plates 113 

WRITING MATERIALS 

I. Materials Used by Ancient Peoples 123 
Rocks — Sharp pointed Instru- 
ments 123 

Tablets of Stone— the Stilus 123 

Wooden and Leaden Tablets .... 124 

Tablets of Clay 125 

Waxen Tablets 125 

Bark, Skins, Leaves — the Calamus, 

or Reed, and Ink 127 



3: CONTENTS 

Chapteb Page 

II. Papyrus 131 

History , 131 

Manufacture 133 

Discoveries of Papyri 135 

III. Parchment and Vellum 138 

History 138 

Manufacture 140 

Vegetable Parchment 140 

IV. Paper 142 

History 142 

Manufacture 146 

Staples 147 

Machine-made Paper 149 

Hand-made Paper 156 

Classes of Paper 159 

V. Pens and Lead-Pencils 163 

Pens 163 

Quill . , 163 

Metal 164 

Gold 166 

Fountain 167 

Lead-Pencils 168 

VI. Ink 171 



CONTENTS xi 

Chapter Page 

BOOKBINDING 

I. Ancient Covers — Early Bindings 181 

The Flat Book 183 

Monastic Bindings 186 

Materials Used 188 

II. Medieval Bindings 190 

Leather Bindings 192 

TooHng 195 

III. Medieval Bindings — Modern Bind- 
ings 200 

Mr. Cobden-Sanderson — the Doves 

Bindery 209 

rV. Commercial Bindings 212 

V. Forwarding 217 

Index ' 227 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
FULL-PAGE PLATES 

Opposite page 

John Gutenberg Frontispiece 

Babylonian Tablet 6 

The Buxheim St. Christopher 18 

First Page of Biblia Pauperum 20 

Page of a Donatus 24 

Gutenberg Taking an Impression 28 

Fragment of a Forty-two Line Bible 30 

Statue of Gutenberg at Strasburg 36 

Court of Plantin Museum 44 

Lanston Typesetting Machine 68 

Mergenthaler Typesetting Machine 

(Linotype) 70 

Old Wooden Printing-Press. 1508 72 

Washington Press 76 

Hoe Sextuple Newspaper Perfecting- 

Press 86 

Selection from Book of the Dead — Turin 

Papyrus 134 

Page from Manuscript Missal — German . . 144 
(xiii) 



xiv LIST OF ILL USTBA TIONS 

Page from the ^' Odes of Horace ' ' — 
AN Italian Manuscript of the Fif- 
teenth Century 146 

Stack of Supercalenders 154 

Grolier Binding 198 

Cobden-Sanderson Binding 210 ''^ 

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 

Page 

Roman Stamps 9 

Bruce Type-Gasting Machine 59 



PKii^TiNa 



PRIiNTING AND WRITING MATERIALS 



PRINTING 

PRINTING is commonly understood to be taking 
-*- impressions from ink-covered types upon pa- 
per or some other smooth substance. This, how- 
ever, is typography, which is but one form of the 
art. A definition embracing all the processes 
which might be included under the head of print- 
ing could hardly be given in one brief state- 
ment. In a broad sense, printing is making 
copies by impression; but what is generally 
known as this art is the taking of impressions 
upon paper or other substance from a surface 
covered with ink or pigment. 
Printing may be divided into four classes : 
Typography, or the art of making impressions 
with movable types. This includes printing from 
electrotypes and stereotypes. 

Xylography (Wood-engraving), or the art of 
taking impressions from a design engraved in high 
relief on a block of wood. 
(3) 



PRINTING 



Lithography (Chemical Printing), or the art by 
which impressions are taken from a design made 
on the surface of a prepared stone, or sometimes 
on zinc or aluminum. 

Intaglio Printing (Steel-plate and Copperplate 
Printing), or the art of taking impressions from 
a design cut below the surface of a plate of steel 
or copper. 

In putting the characters or designs upon the 
respective surfaces, three processes are employed. 

In Typography and Xylography, the characters, 
designs, or pictures to be printed are in relief. 
Ink is deposited on these characters or lines, 
paper is placed upon them, and pressure causes 
most of the ink to leave the printing surface and 
adhere to the paper. 

In Lithography, the lines are on the surface, 
in very slight relief. A drawing is made with 
greasy ink on the surface of a prepared stone. 
The rest of the stone is moistened with water. The 
ink used for taking the impression adheres to the 
greasy drawing, but is repelled by the water. 
Pressure causes the ink to leave the stone and ad- 
here to the paper. The design may also be put 
upon the stone by transfer from another stone 
or from prepared paper, by engraving, or by 
transfer from a photograph. 



PRINTING 



In Intaglio Printing (Steel-plate and Copper 
plate Printing), the lines are cut below the sur- 
face of a plate of polished metal. Ink is deposited 
in these incisions, and any that is left upon the 
surface is wiped away before an impression is 
taken. Paper is laid upon the plate, pressure 
forces it into all the furrows, and a sharp, clean 
impression is obtained. 



CHAPTER I 



ANCIENT RELIEF PROCESSES 



Babylonia 
and Assyria. 



Clay tab- 
lets, cones, 
and cylin- 
ders. 



A LTHOUGH in Europe printing from movable 
^^ types dates from the middle of the fifteenth 
century, the transfer of form by impression is 
one of the oldest of the arts. In Babylonia and 
Assyria, letters, pictures, and arbitrary signs were 
stamped on soft clay which was afterwards baked. 
In the ruins of the buildings of these ancient 
peoples, there has been found scarcely a stone 
or a kiln-burnt brick without an inscription or a 
stamp. The inscriptions on the stone were prob- 
ably made with a chisel, but those on the 
bricks were made either from wooden stamps 
cut in relief or by the separate impressions of 
some pointed instrument. The bricks show vari- 
ous shapes: square or oblong tablets, cones, and 
cylinders, the latter often of considerable size. 
Some of the tablets are not more than one inch 
long; others found in the ruins of the palace of 
Nineveh measure 9 by 6^ inches. The cuneiform 
(wedge-shaped or arrow-headed) characters on 
(6) 




BABYLONIAN TABLET WITH CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTION. 

Size of the Original (2 x S% inches) in the Museum of Drexel Institute. 



ANCIENT RELIEF PROCESSES 



most of the tablets are sharp and well-defined, 
but in some cases they are so minute as to be 
almost illegible without the aid of a magnifying 
glass. Whole Hbraries were formed of such bricks. Libraries. 
These clay books, as they may be called, were 
arranged according to their subjects, numbered, 
catalogued, and placed in charge of librarians. 
The Hbraries were public property, and were 
intended for the instruction of the people. Each 
of the principal cities of Babylonia and Assyria 
possessed a library of this kind, of which the great 
national library of Assur bani pal (Greek, Sardana- 
palus) , at Nineveh, was the most famous. Large 
numbers of the tablets found in Assur bani pal 's 
palace have been placed in the British Museum. 
Fragments of the catalogue have also been found, 
and show that the library contained : legal, math- 
x^matical, and geographical treatises ; historical 
and mythological documents; poetical composi- 
tions ; works on astronomy and astrology ; religious 
records; lists of stones, birds, and beasts; royal 
proclamations, and petitions to the king. 

Contracts of marriage, sales and leases of contract tab- 
property, and other business transactions were 
recorded on clay tablets. Sanction was indi- 
cated by an indentation made in the clay with 



lets. 



c 



ANCIENT BELIEF PROCESSES 



Egypt. 



Greece and 



the finger-nail, preceded or followed by the men- 
tion of a name. From the contract tablets, which 
have been found in great numbers, much has been 
learned of the social life of Babylonia and Assyria. 

In Egypt characters were impressed on bricks, 
but not to the same extent as in Assyria. Sev- 
eral old wooden stamps have been discovered in 
the tombs at Thebes, Meroe, and other places. 
The characters on their faces are cut in intaglio, 
or below the surface, so that impressions taken 
from them would be in relief. 

The ancient Greeks and Romans were acquainted 
Rome. ^th the art of metal-engraving. The Greeks 

engraved maps on metal plates by cutting lines 
below the surface. Impressions on vellum or 
papyrus could have been taken from these plates, 
but instead of thus quickly and easily multiplying 
copies, a new engraving seems to have been made 
for each map. Thin stencil-plates of wood were 
recommended by Quintilian as an aid for boys 
in learning to write. Cicero perceived that, with 
proper care, the letters of the alphabet might be 
so arranged as to form an infinite number of 
sentences; but we have no evidence that he 
thought of combining them for the purpose of 
printing. 



ANCIENT RELIEF PROCESSES 



The old Romans employed wooden and metal wooden and 
stamps with letters cut in relief. The potters 
marked their manufactures with the name of the 
contents of the vessel or of that of the owner. 
They seem also to have used movable types. Some 




risctflDp 



EOMAN STAMPS 

[From Jackson] 



of the inscriptions on their clay lamps were made 
by impressing consecutively the type of each let- 
ter. Brass stamps, with letters engraved in relief, 
have been frequently found in Italy and also in 



10 ANCIENT BELIEF PROCESSES 

France. They are all small in size and contain 
the names of persons only. Several of these 
ancient stamps are preserved in the British Mu- 
seum; two are of curious shape, as shown in the 
illustration on the preceding page, and have the 
letters cut into the metal. In using such stamps, 
the Romans seem to have practised, to some 
extent, the art of printing with ink. A stamp in 
the British Museum Collection is in the form of 
a plate, about two inches long and nearly an 
inch wide. On the face, engraved in relief, are 
two lines of capital letters, cut the reverse way, 
as would now be necessary for printing. An 
impression taken from the stamp would read : 



CICAECILI 
HERMIAE. SN. 



Stamps for which was probably the signature of one Cecilius 

signatures. _^ . ^.r ^ • ' ^ /• i • xt 

Hermias. Nothmg is known of this man. He 
may have used the stamp to save himself the 
trouble of writing or to hide his inability to write. 
The use of stamps for affixing signatures con- 
tinued until the beginning of the Renaissance, 
or the revival of learning which succeeded the 
dark age. We read that the Emperor Justinian 



ANCIENT RELIEF PROCESSES 11 

made use of a perforated golden plate to assist 
him in signing his name. Theodoric, King of the 
Ostrogoths, did the same. It appears also that 
''the Emperor Charlemagne and the kings who 
were his immediate successors formed the strokes 
of their monograms by following with the pen all 
the openings cut into the plate or tablet laid upon 
the act to which they wished to subscribe." 

A method of making impressions, employed 
for centuries throughout Europe, was that of 
branding. Cattle and also human beings were 
marked in this manner. The Romans marked 
runaway slaves {fugitivi) and thieves (Jures) 
with the letter F. Under the famous Statute 
of Vagabonds, enacted during the reign of Edward 
VI. of England (1547-1553), runaway servants 
and idle loiterers in the highways able to work 
were branded on the breast with the letter V, 
and fugitive slaves w^ere marked on the cheek 
and forehead with the letter S. Branding was 
also a mild form of punishment for the gypsies, 
and in 1698 was made the penalty for theft and 
petty larceny. Cold branding was afterwards 
substituted as a nominal infliction of the penalty. 
This barbarous mode of punishment was discon- 



Branding. 



12 ANCIENT RELIEF PROCESSES 

tinued in England in the reign of George III.; 
and was finally abolished in 1829. In France, as 
late as 1832, galley slaves were marked with the 
letters T F (travaux forces). In Germany brand- 
ing has never been recognized by the common law. 

Except in the few cases mentioned, these 
ancient peoples seem not to have taken impres- 
sions from stamps nor to have multipUed im- 
pressions from the same stamp. Had they 
wished, however, to repeat the same inscrip- 
tion many times upon papyrus or parchment, 
there were mechanical difficulties in the way 
which would have rendered their work in- 
different and unsatisfactory, and which explains, 
in some measure, why the world had to wait so long 
Lack^f^^suit- for the invention of typography. These nations 
printing. ^^^^ destitute of some of the comimonest printing 
materials which to-day are considered indispens- 
able. What we term paper did not exist, except 
in China, before the eighth century, and was not 
manufactured in Europe before the twelfth. 
The papyrus used as a writing surface could 
not be folded like ordinary rag paper, and 
would probably have torn apart under the 
action of a press. It could not be rolled upon 



ANCIENT RELIEF PROCESSES 13 

itself, in the same w^y as a sheet of paper, but 
had to be wound around a wooden roller. Parch- 
ment, being greasy, resists ink, is hard to han- 
dle, and even at the present day is regarded as 
an undesirable printing material. The ancients 
lacked also a suitable ink. Trifling as it may 
seem, this would have been one of the chief ob- 
stacles in the way of success, even had there been 
an invention of types. Their ink was a thin wash 
made of soot thickened with gum, with an acid 
sometimes added to make it bite or sink below 
the surface of the papyrus. These watery inks 
would have collected in blotches upon a smooth 
metal plate, and if stamped upon paper or parch- 
ment the impressions would have been of irregu- 
lar blackness and illegible in many places. The 
chief ingredients of printing-ink are lampblack 
and oil. The early printers of the fifteenth cen- 
tury took a lesson from an innovation which 
immediately preceded the invention of typog- 
raphy; this was the mixing of color with oil,^ a 
step which wrought a revolution in the art of 
painting. The printers, finding that they could 



1 The introduction of this method has been generally attributed 
to Jan van Eyck of Holland, who lived during the early part of the 
fifteenth century; but it is believed that his brother Hivbert has an 
equal claim to the honor of the discovery. 



14 ANCIENT BELIEF PROCESSES 

not use the ink of the copyists, mixed their black 
with oil, and succeeded in giving to the world 
books which after more than four centuries are 
still beautifully legible. 

Besides the lack of suitable materials, the old 
Romans had no great mechanical skill. Archi- 
tecture was about the only art requiring the 
cooperation of many persons, in which they 
achieved success. Simple labor-saving devices, so 
common at the present daj^, were unknown to 
them. 

The civilization of ancient Rome had no great 
need of the art. There were many scribes and 
copyists. These professional scribes were edu- 
cated slaves, whose food and clothing cost but 
little, and who produced books faster than they 
could be sold. They were read not only in the 
libraries, but in the porticoes of houses, at private 
dinners, and at the baths. Horace complained that 
his books were too common, and that they were 
found in the hands of vulgar snobs for whom they 
had not been written. Volumes produced by 
slave labor were, of course, cheap. Martial's 
first book of epigrams, in plain binding, was sold 
for six sesterces, or about twenty-four cents of 
American money. 



ANCIENT BELIEF PROCESSES 15 

The Chinese have practised block-printing for china. 
many centuries. Printing with ink from wooden 
blocks has been traced as far back as the sixth 
century, and some writers claim that China had 
a knowledge of the art even before the Christian 
era. The invention of movable types of clay was 
made by a blacksmith, Pi Shing, in the eleventh 
century. This method of printing was done by 
rubbing, but it did not supersede block-printing. 
The British Museum possesses a work printed in 
1337, which is exhibited as the earhest instance 
of a Korean book printed from movable types. 

Various attempts have been made to substitute 
types for engraved blocks, but this is difficult 
because of the great mmiber of the Chinese char- 
acters. These characters do not stand for letters 
or sounds, but represent complete words or ideas; 
besides the two hundred and fourteen radicals, 
the characters formed by combinations have been 
variously estimated from forty thousand to over 
two hundred thousand in number; not more than 
fourteen or fifteen thousand, however, are in regular 
use. A Chinese missionary house employs about 
six thousand characters ; for an ordinary newspa- 
per only about four thousand are necessary ; while 
magazines which treat of a greater range of sub- 



Japan 



16 ANCIENT BELIEF PROCESSES 

jects require ten thousand. The printing-offices 
arrange the characters by the radicals. 

Movable types, both of wood and of metal, 
have long been employed in China. Movable 
types of metal were first cut in 1815, for the 
purpose of printing Morrison's Dictionary. Print- 
ing from metal types is practised in China mainly 
for the purpose of circulating the Bible and for 
newspapers. 

It is indisputable that block-printing was first 
practised in China, but there is nothing to prove 
that Europe originally derived its knowledge of 
this art from the East. 

In Japan the earliest example of block-printing 
dates from the middle of the eighth century. 
The Jesuits were the first to print from metal 
types in that country, in the seventeenth century. 
Because of the avidity with which the Japanese 
have taken hold of Western learning, printing is 
extensively carried on in Japan, both blocks and 
types of metal being employed. 



CHAPTER II 

PRINTING IN EUROPE 

TN Europe until the second half of the four- 
-*- teenth century, books of every kind, letters, 
and all private and public documents were written 
by hand. Figures and pictures were produced 
with either the pen or the brush. 

Before the invention of typography in the 
middle of the fifteenth century, playing-cards, 
pictures of saints, and block-books were printed 
from engraved wooden blocks.^ 

When this method of printing began to be 
developed in Europe, it was in connection with 
playing-cards. The work was extended in the 
production of image prints (sometimes accom- image prints 
panied with a text), texts of scripture without books, 
pictures, and whole books, — each picture, text, or 
leaf being printed from one engraved block. The 
latter, called block-books, sometimes consisted only 



1 Block-printing on cloth and vellum seema to have been practised 
as early as the twelfth century, and on paper as early as the second 
half of the fourteenth century. 

2 (17) 



18 



PRINTING IN EUROPE 



Image prints. 



The St. 
Christopher. 



of pictures, sometimes they were half picture and 
half text; and occasionally they contained only 
text. 

From their perishable nature, but few of the 
early image prints have come down to us. With 
a few exceptions, these prints were colored. They 
were pictures of sacred personages, and were 
undoubtedly copied from illuminated religious 
books then to be found in ah the large monas- 
teries. They were intended for religious instruc- 
tion and comfort, and were bought by the poor 
and hung on the walls of their huts and cabins. 
These prints were produced as early as the four- 
teenth, perhaps as early as the thirteenth cen- 
tury. The earliest print still existing with a 
definite and unquestioned date is the St. Chris- 
topher of 1423. It is a rude wood-engraving, 
about 8 by 11 inches, and represents the Saint 
carrying the infant Saviour across a river. This 
print was discovered by Heinecken, in 1769, 
pasted inside the binding of an old manuscript 
volume of 1417, in the library of one of the most 
ancient convents of Germany, the Chartreuse at 
Buxheim in Swabia. The manuscript was placed 
in what was known as the Spencer Library, which 
afterwards passed into the possession of Mrs. 




I^L^ 



^llfttwettiftncncemaianoa mourns ♦I'te^tcaur :-<^ 



THE EVXHEIM SAIM CHRlSTurHEE, 1423. 



PRINTING IN EUROPE 19 



Rylands, of Manchester, England.^ In the book 
which contained the St. Christopher was also found 
another ima2:e print, the Annunciation, by some The Annun- 

^ ^ ' 7 ^ ciation. 

thought to be of the same age and workmanship 
as the former. It is about the same size and is 
printed on the same kind of paper. Many image 
prints, of course, were produced before the St. 
Christopher, but this bears the earhest date of any 
now in existence. The Mary Engraving, or the 
Brussels Print, was formerly thought to be of the The Brussels 

' " ° Print. 

year 1418; but the date had evidently been tam- 
pered with, and the authorities now consider it 
to be 1468. This print was discovered by an inn- 
keeper, in 1848, pasted on the inside of an old chest, 
and was placed in the Royal Library at Brussels. 
Other old prints are the St. Bridget, supposed 
to be of nearly the same age as the St. Christopher; 
the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, with fourteen 
lines of text and bearing the date 1437, found in 
1799 in the monastery of St. Blaise in the Black 
Forest, and preserved in the Imperial Library 
at Vienna; the St. Nicolas de Tolentino, with the 
date 1440 written in by hand; a print representing 

1 This has been made a public library of research and reference in 
the city of Manchester, under the name of The John Rylands 
Library. It was formally opened on October 6, 1899, and takes its 
place as one of the great libraries of the world. 



PRINTING IN EUROPE 



Block-books. 



Block-booka 
without text. 



the bearing of the cross, St. Dorothea and St. 
Alexis, With the date 1443 also written in by hand. 
No other wood-cuts are known with dates prior 
to the second half of the fifteenth century. A 
number of engravings exist, which, judging from 
the style of the workmanship, may have been 
produced somewhat earlier, probably in the 
latter part of the fourteenth or early in the 
fifteenth century. 

The block-books were printed wholly from carved 
blocks of wood. A whole page, sometimes two 
whole pages were printed from a single block. 
The block-books are of two kinds: books of pic- 
tures without text, but containing words descrip- 
tive of the picture at the foot of the page, in the 
corners, or in scrolls near the figures; and books 
of pictures containing explanations of the pictures 
in a full page of text, usually printed on the page 
opposite the picture. 

Of the first class, pictures without pages of 
text, the best known are the Biblia Pauperum 
(Bible of the Poor), the Apocalypse of St. John, 
the Canticum Canticorum (The Canticles), and 
the Story of the Blessed Virgin. To the second 
class belong Der Endkrist (The Antichrist), the 
Ars Memorandi (How to Remember the Evan- 



ft iwnhfiT : ipaiJttrct) 

(^T»i:si6at)rpumg(t)r" 



bat uu'ipnFiuanmu:, 
jjtoiJoCAin fmr coipiQih' 
cue iui|){tiyTi5aim t^ 








FIRST PAGE OF THE BIBIJA PAUPERUM. 
(THE ANNUNCIATION.; 



PBINTINQ IN EUROPE 21 

gelists), the Ars Moriendi (How to Die Becom- Block-books 
ingly), the Mirabilia Romce (the Wonders of ^^^htext. 
Rame), and the Dance of Death. The only block- 
book without pictures, of which we have knowl- 
edge, is the Donatus, or Boy^s Latin Grammar. 
One of the best known of the block-books is the 
Speculum Humance Salvationis (Mirror of Salva- 
tion) . This is of special interest in the history of 
typography, as it occupies a position midway j^^ ^p®^"' 
between the block-book proper and the ordinary 
printed book. In the true block-book, both 
pictures and text were engraved on blocks of 
wood. In the four known editions of the Speculum 
the text is printed from movable types, except 
in one edition which contains twenty xylographic 
pages. 

It is not known just how many different block- 
books are now in existence, but there are perhaps 
nearly one hundred. Sotheby, in 1858, described 
but twenty-one; the Encyclopedia Britannica of 
1888 enumerates but thirty. It is probable that 
many have been lost and forgotten. Although 
but few distinct works were published, the editions 
were numerous. From the number and variety 
of the editions, there must have been a large 
demand for these books. They were made both 



22 FEINTING IN EUROPE 

before and after the invention of typography. 
They were issued after the invention of movable 
types because of the cheapness with which they 
could be produced. Many of those which have 
come down to us are unimportant, others are 
of so late a date as to be of little interest in the 
history of printing. An Italian adaptation of the 
Bihlia Pauperum was printed at Venice as late 
as 1512; and a few block-books of less merit were 
printed after this. The latest block-book of any 
size was produced also at Venice. It is known 
as the Figure del Testamento Vecchio (Pictures 
from the Old Testament), printed about 1510, 
by Giovanni Andrea Vavassore. The separate 
issues are not editions in our sense of the term: 
they were not printed from one set of blocks 
after another, as the sets were successively worn 
out. The cutter who carved the blocks sold not 
the books but the blocks themselves, to private 
purchasers, who were men of wealth or heads of 
religious establishments. The editions, conse- 
quently do not always follow one another; a short 
interval may have sometimes elapsed between 
two issues; but when a work was popular, 
the blocks were often produced side by side by 
different cutters. 



PRINTING IN EUROPE 23 

The block-books were printed on one side of 
the paper only, in brown ink. Impressions were 
taken off by rubbing; occasionally two sheets 
were pasted together to form one leaf. The paper 
was harsh and uneven. Books printed on both 
sides of the paper and in black ink are considered 
to have been produced after the invention of 
typography. 

The image prints were usually colored after 
they were printed. In many the colors were 
painted in, but the later prints show that they 
were stenciled. The block-books, also, were often 
painted, or colored by means of stencil-plates. 

Most of the block-books are of a religious char- 
acter, but the religion they teach is, of course, 
dogmatic and doctrinal. They were probably 
written by ecclesiastics of high position for the 
instruction of ignorant monks and curates unable 
to read. They gradually, however, found their 
way into the hands of the laymen, who admired 
the pictures if they could not read the Latin. 
Although written by ecclesiastics, we have no evi- 
dence that these books were printed in monas- 
teries. The block-printers of a later day were 
laymen, and it is probable that the earlier books 
were also printed by laymen. 



24 PRINTING IN EUROPE 

BibiiaPau- '^^^ Tdost famous of the block-books was the 
BM^ofthe Biblia Pauperum, or Bible of the Poor. This 
name seems to have been given to it to distingmsh 
it from the complete Bible in manuscript which, 
of course, could be owned only by the rich. The 
Bible proper of that day was in the form of two 
or more thick folios and was written on fine 
vellum. Although called the Bible of the Poor, 
this book was written for the clergy; the poor of 
the laity, however, were doubtless able to appre- 
ciate the pictures. It was the block-book most 
often reproduced, and was printed in both Latin 
and German. The edition supposed to be the 
first is in Latin, and contains neither date, place, 
nor name of printer. By some it is claimed to 
have been printed in Germany, by others in Hol- 
land. The Biblia Pauperum consists of forty 
wood-engravings, printed on only one side of the 
leaf. The prints face each other, two pages of 
pictures being followed by two blank pages. The 
Life and Passion of Christ are represented, with 
parallel subjects taken from the Old Testament. 
The origin of the Ars Moriendi is not known, 

ArsMoriendi, , . . . c ,^ ' , -i 

or How to Die but it was a popular work long after the mtroduc- 

Becomingly. 

tion of the printing press. Its object is to set forth 
the temptations that beset both the good and the 




rioirie (luf upoflffl oiije pair 
ritnra OMtoid fignificiinmv 
cmawcmjfjtf. mumuax 
mm\mit,pi^ii^i jjuof amour" 
^mi|.^ttif<tafii0 nn.<Biior fa(u0 

Iiiumfeart1faru0;uf 30. apuo. aiitf 

3tJUfrfurtt.rt0.nn*a.nrai.nrfa. romi. 

rr^a.mra.iurerantra.kfra.ptao''' 

j)onr.piT.jpfipffr.fi:dm.yoft.fraira 

vlrra.pJfinr.Oipja.nrnffr.ufii^.O'ruo 

pfiiro-^tto Dinmiie rat" tlo parrnii 

0putuilla.aniTrord.s0urrrutnimnit 

100.(10 rmu.nrrafojO. nrmu^rino'' 

^ratra!plu.fonnatHJflif0.fr0a4puK 

Ij«o0.nftratfrrata00.ttitfrnauf04n* 

tramrnta.mfratrmi.niirra(nardlutr 

sroauoutiri^ionrmbunalgparifmu 

'jPffewara.j5>tfroi(iri9ltita (irtlmfi) 

PAGE OF A DONATUS. 

[From Bouchot.] 
The original block is preserved in the National_Library at Paris. 



PRINTING IN EUROPE 25 

bad in the hour of dissolution. Angels and 
demons surround the bed of the dying person, 
and strive to win for themselves the departing 
soul. A kind of dialogue is kept up between 
the angels and Satan, which is set forth in 
the scrolls. In the illustration which repre- 
sents the death of the rich man, one devil tells 
him to provide for his friends, another calls out 
''Pay attention to your treasures." In the next 
cut, an angel exhorts him not to heed the advice 
of the devils, but to leave his property to the 
-chiu'ch. In the last picture, the spirit of the 
dying man, represented by a manikin, is exhaled 
with his last breath, and is received by the angels. 
The book was apparently written to prepare man 
for another world, but its real purpose was the 
aggrandizement of the church. The work was 
popular for more than a century. 

The Donatus is the only block-book without pic- 
tures of which we have any knowledge. Its author or Boy's Lat-' 

TT-n • T^ -n. • r« 1 ^^ Grammar. 

was tEIius Donatus, a Roman grammarian of the 
fourth century and one of the instructors of 
St. Jerome. The block-book was the grammar 
abridged, and is the only school-book known to have 
been printed from blocks. When printed in the 
largest letters, it contained but thirty-four pages; 



26 PRINTING IN EUROPE 

when put in small letters it had only nine pages. 
As the Donatus was constantly used in every pre- 
paratory school, there was always a large demand 
for it. For so small a book, the engraving of the 
blocks would cost little more than type composi- 
tion, consequently, xylographic editions were still 
produced at the end of the fifteenth century. 

Originally, the Donatus was written for students 
who spoke Latin, and who, when the book was 
first published in the fourth century, could easily 
read it. The work continued to be used as late 
as the fifteenth century, because Latin was the 
only language taught in the schools. The use 
in the fifteenth century of a text-book written in 
the fourth, shows the little progress made in edu- 
cational methods. From the forbidding appear- 
ance of the book, one infers that no effort was 
made to render the path of knowledge inviting. 

Two original blocks of the Donatus were bought 
in Germany by Foucault, Minister of Louis XIV., 
about two hundred years ago, and are preserved in 
the National Library at Paris. There is part of 
a Donatus in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, with 
a colophon stating it to be the work of Conrad 
Dinckmut, who practised printing at Ulm from 
1482 to 1496. Fragments are also preserved in 
several of the great European libraries. 



CHAPTER III 

INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 

rPHE progress of the development of the art of im- 
■*- pressing characters from engraved designs has 
thus far been traced from the clay bricks of Baby- 
lonia, Assyria, and Egypt to the block-printing of 
China and Europe. All the steps necessary to 
give the world the art of typography had been 
taken except one, and the people of Europe, 
especially in the North, were ready to receive 
the art. Paper had been manufactured for more 
than two hundred years and it was now in common 
use, although regarded by the cultured classes as 
a plebeian writing material. The printers had 
found a suitable ink for their work, and in Ger- 
many and the Netherlands, where typography was 
first practised, there had been for some time a 
steady progress in education, and consequently a 
developed mental activity which was put to prac- 
tical use. 

The final step needed was the casting of movable 
metal types. Printing could never have been 
(27) 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 



The type- 
mould. 



John Guten- 
berg. 



practised on an extensive scale, if the idea of 
casting types had not been conceived. The key to 
the invention was the type-mould. The honor is 
due to the man who invented the first type-mould, 
for types which are cast are the only ones that 
can be used to advantage. There is no evidence 
to prove that engraved wooden types were ever 
used except in an experimental way. A fierce 
controversy has waged as to who first gave the 
world a knowledge of typography, but the weight 
of evidence is strongly in favor of John Guten- 
berg, a printer of Mainz. 

We do not know when and where Gutenberg 
made his first experiments with movable types, but 
before 1439 he seems to have been at work at Stras- 
burg, endeavoring to perfect his art. From Stras- 
burg he went to Mainz, where his name appears 
in 1448, in a record of a legal contract. Here, 
about 1450, he entered into partnership with Jo- 
hann Fust or Faust, a wealthy money-lender, who 
furnished the means necessary to set up a print- 
ing-press. In a few years (1455), Fust brought a 
lawsuit against Gutenberg, to recover the sum of 
money he had advanced. The verdict was in 
Fust's favor and the printing-press passed out of 
the hands of Gutenberg. Although now nearly 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 29 

sixty years old, Gutenberg did not despair, but 
determined to found another office. Some of his 
printing materials still remained to him, and the 
clerk of the town of Mainz provided him with 
money. He continued his work for some time, 
but in 1462 all printing in Mainz was interrupted 
for several years, by the sacking of the town 
during the quarrel of the archbishops. In 1465 
Gutenberg was made a courtier by Adolph II., 
Count of Nassau. His death occurred before 
February, 1468, but nothing is known of the 
circumstances. 

The earhest specimen of printing from mov- 
able metal types know^n to exist at the present day 
is the famous Letter of Indulgence,^ of Pope 
Nicholas V., to such persons as should contribute 
money to help the King of Cyprus against the 
Turks. A copy of this Indulgence is now pre- 
served in the Meerman-Westreenen Museum at 
the Hague. It bears the earliest authentic date 
on a document printed from types, — November 
15, 1454. 



1 A plenary indulgence of three years, granted by Pope Nicholas 
v., on the 12th of April, 1451, to all persons who from May 1, 1452, to 
May 1, 1455, should contribute money to aid the King of Cyprus then 
threatened by the Turks. 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 



The work upon which Gutenberg's fame rests, 
as a great printer, is the Holy Bible in Latin. 
There are two editions of this work : one known as 
?orty-two ^^® Bible of Forty-two Lines, and the other as 
^^''^^' the Bible of Thirtij-six Lines. The figures in- 

dicate the number of lines to the page in a col- 
umn. It is not known which was printed first, 
but it is generally believed that the forty-two-line 
Bible is the earlier. This is generally called the 
Mazarin Bible, ^ because the copy which first 
attracted notice was discovered in 1760 in the 
library of Cardinal Mazarin at Paris; it is also 
known as Gutenberg's First Bible. It is believed 
that this Bible could not have been begun before 
August, 1450, and that it was finished in 1455, but 
the exact dates are not known. The Paris copy 
contains the rubricator's inscription, which shows 
that the work was completed before the 15th 
Bible of o^ August, 1456. The thirty-six-hne Bible has 

Lines? ^^^ received the name of Pfister's or the Bamberg 
Bible, because the type used in it was once owned 
by Albrecht Pfister of Bamberg. A copy of this 
Bible was discovered in 1728, in the library of 
a monastery near Mainz. A note found in the 



1 The Earl of Ashburnham's copy of the Mazarin Bible, on vellum, 
was sold in 1897 for £4,000, or about $20,000, 



liba-uomt btEfitlittiuf noo gtralira 
imim?. }^ttia illrfuiottitqui tgoDua 
fl^prilat.Ioxiua uagtcra:m t Iwirit?. 
£5uart9 uagtisafeciqut mxm^ uora^ 
inu0.C5wc9 iIliaiJtBiMintqteutono^ 
ram pnotat.I]ij If ijuitp Ubri morfi: 
Jluti0,pH tl|oratt||^.efe^aipliat. 
jfejtdra^aii muuttMut:£t nuiitt^ 
unt a i^u &(io namtqm apuD tUoe 
lofmbmuummat^aniuruiitciut 
fs3|Jt)[|rttnU Jft iu0ituUlji|:£t in juimi 
io{)in0ut nittr^qtiia m lucb iul^tu: 
!m a? nacrat Ijitoria. loxiue ftqui^ 
tur fammkquan noo rcgnoii pmu i 
feira fiidra^.CJuatt? raaladjira in f 

FRAGMENT OF THE FORTY-TWO-I.INE BIBLE, KNOWN ALSO AS 
GUTENBERG'S FIRST BIBLE 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 31 

manuscript catalogue of the library states that ^^^^^ 
the Bible was given to the monastery by John 
Gutenberg and his associates. The date 1461 
is written on a copy of the last leaf of this book, 
also preserved in the National Library at Paris. 

These two editions of the Bible bear no printed 
date, ^ and were published, like all of Gutenberg's 
works, without name or place of printer. The 
great expense which he incurred and the fear of 
lawsuits may have led him to omit his name from 
the books he printed — a fact which makes it diffi- 
cult to identify all of them. 

Among some of the later works ascribed to ^ , 

^ Later works 

Gutenberg were: the Calendar of 1457; a Letter of ^^f^^^"^' 
Indulgence of 1461; and the Catholicon of 1460, 
written by John of Genoa, of the fraternity of 
preachers or mendicant friars, which contains a 
Latin grammar and an etymological dictionary, and 
w^hich was used as a text-book of authority in the 
higher schools. Five little pamphlets attributed to 
Gutenberg are: A Treatise on the Celebration of 
Mass; a Calendar or an Almanac for 1460; the 
Mirror of the Clergy; sl Treatise on the Necessity 
of Councils, etc.; a Dialogue between Cato, Hugo, 



berg. 



1 The first book with a printed date is the Psalmorum Codex of 
1457, issued by Schoefier. 



John Fust. 



32 INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 

and Oliver, about Ecclesiastical Liberty. It has not 
been proved that Gutenberg printed these works. 
Two books that he probably issued are : A Treatise 
on Reason and Conscience, by Matthew of Cracow, 
and A Summary of the Articles of Faith, by 
Thomas Aquinas. He may have printed many 
others which have been destroyed and forgotten. 

Two friends of Gutenberg, who probably knew 
about his invention, erected tablets to his memory, 
— one soon after his death, in the church at 
Mainz, and the other in 1508, in a law school of 
that city. The inscriptions on these two tablets 
speak of him as the inventor of printing. Both 
Strasburg and Mainz have erected fine monu- 
ments to his memory. 

John Fust, also known as Faust, was a wealthy 
money-lender living in Mainz between 1440 and 
1460, and one of the three persons to whom has 
been ascribed the invention of typography. About 
1450 Fust entered into partnership with Guten- 
berg, and advanced the money needed to estabHsh 
a printing-office. In 1455 he brought suit against 
Gutenberg to recover the sum lent, which, of 
course, had increased through interest charges and 
other expenses The j udges decided in Fust's favor. 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 33 

and as Gutenberg was unable to pay the money, 
the press passed out of his hands. Peter Schoef- Peter schoef- 
fer, son-in-law of Fust, who had been in the em- 
ployment of Gutenberg, supervised the manage- 
ment of the printing-office after the departure of 
the latter. The business was carried on by Fust 
and Schoeffer until the capture of Mainz,^ in 1462, 
which stopped the work of the press for a few 
years. Fust died in 1466 and Schoeffer became the 
head of the printing-house. He was successful in 
business and established agencies for the sale of 
books at other places in Germany. In the latter 
part of his life, he was made a judge, but con- 
tinued the business of printing until his death, 
which occurred about 1502. 

The first book issued by the Fust-Schoeffer 
press, after the partnership with Gutenberg had 
been dissolved, was the Psalter of 1457, a folio of Psaiterof 

1457. 

one hundred and seventy-five leaves. This is the 
first book with a printed date, and is almost as 



1 The archbishopric of Mainz was claimed by Adolph II., Count of 
Nassau, who was supported by Pope Pius II. In 1462 he attacked 
and captured the town which took the side of Diether, then arch- 
bishop and elector of the place. Many citizens were murdered and 
the town was sacked. All industry was, of course, destroyed. The 
workmen of the printing- oflBces fled to other places, carrying their 
art with them. For three years after the capture of the town, 
nothing of value was printed at Mainz. 



34 INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 

famous as the forty-two-line Bible. It is an 
imitation not only of the copjdst's but of the 
illuminator's work, with black stately types and 
two-colored initials, red and blue. The letter is 
in one color and the ornament surrounding it in 
another. These capital letters are the most 
striking thing about the Psalter. It is not yet 
known exactly how they were produced. By 
many this book is regarded as the finest work 
issued by the early press, but others think that in 
order to produce the blackness of the type, some 
of the lines have been retraced and the initials 
have been repainted. No later work of this press 
equals the Psalter either in presswork or type- 
cutting. It is quite probable that the book had 
been planned and begun by Gutenberg before he 
severed his partnership with Fust. The colophon 
or imprint is so ingeniously worded that, while 
it does not expressly state that Fust and Schoeffer 
were the inventors of printing, the reader is left 
to infer that fact: 

"This book of Psalms, decorated with antique initials, and suffi- 
ciently emphasized with rubricated letters, has been thus made by 
the masterly invention of printing and also of type-making, without 
the writing of a pen, and is consummated to the service of God, 
through the industry of Johan Fust, citizen of Mentz, and Peter 
SchoeflFer, of Gemszheim, in the year of our Lord 1457, on the eve of 
the Assumption [August 14]." 



Koster 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 35 

The books issued by the early printers were in the 
gothic letter. When the new art was first intro- Gothic letter, 
duced, the wealthy looked upon the innovation 
as an inartistic trade, and the printers therefore 
copied the characters of the contemporary manu- 
scripts in order to sell their works. 

Koster is the person to whom the Dutch ascribe 
the invention of types. It seems that two men by 
the name of Lourens Janszoon lived in Haarlem janszwn 
during the first half of the fifteenth century. It 
is supposed that one was sacristan or hoster in 
that city; it is claimed that he made his inven- 
tion between the years 1420 and 1440. Until 
1499 no one seemed to doubt that movable types 
had been first used in Strasburg by John Guten- 
berg, who afterwards went to Mainz and estab- 
hshed the press which issued the Latin Bible, 
known as the Mazarin Bible. In the Cologne 
Chronicle, published in 1499, one chapter discusses 
the question of the origin of printing. The 
chronicler states that the new art was discovered 
at Mainz, about 1440, but that although it was dis- 
covered in Germany, " the first prefiguration was in 
Holland, in the form of the Donatuses, which were 
printed before that time." This statement 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 



started the controversy which has waged for four 
centuries as to the true inventor of printing. 
Junius, in his Batavia, printed in the Plantin office 
at Antwerp in 1588/ gives an account of the 
invention, which he said he had heard from old and 
trustworthy people. He states that in 1440 Ros- 
ter, who was then living at Haarlem, while one 
day walking in the Hout, or woods near the city, 
^'cut letters on the bark of a beech-tree; that he 
printed these letters on paper for the amusement 
of children ; that he invented a suitable printing- 
ink, and afterwards printed whole sheets with 
pictures; and that still later he used leaden let- 
ters and then tin ones." Junius also states that in 
1441 one of Roster's workmen stole the types and 
fled to Mainz, where he opened a workshop and 
published two works with these types in 1442. 

The most severe assault upon the claim of Ros- 
ter was made in 1870 by a Dutchman, Dr. van 
der Linde. He published a series of articles 
entitled The Koster Legend, in which he claimed 
that the documents brought forward to prove 
Roster the inventor of printing were false, and 
that the arguments in his favor had no historical 



1 It will be noticed that this date is about a century and a half 
later than the invention of typography. 




STATUE OF GUTENBERG AT STRASBURG. 

[From a Photograph.] 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 37 

or bibliographical support. The work aroused 
such indignation in Holland that Dr. van der Linde 
thought it advisable to leave the country. Hessels, 
also a native of Holland, took up the subject, and 
after considerable research, he pubHshed in 1882, 
a book in which he stated that he could find 
nothing to prove Gutenberg the inventor of print- 
ing. The controversy between the two authors was 
kept up for some time, but the Koster theory has 
been abandoned everyivhere except in Holland. 

The art begun at Mainz soon spread to other ^^^^ ^ 
cities and to other countries. Travelers were con- typography, 
stantly passing through this town to the Nether- 
lands, France, Italy, and Switzerland. The 
quarrel of the archbishops in 1462 dispersed the 
printers and probably sent Ulrich Zell to Cologne. 
Presses were soon set up in other cities, and by 
the end of the fifteenth century more than one 
hundred and fifty towns were practising the art. 
England made a beginning in 1477. France, 
Germany, and Italy were the countries where 
typography was most practised and where the 
greatest improvements were made. Three 
printers from Germany established a press in Paris 
in 1470, and others soon took up the work. Many 



38 



INVENTION OF TYPOGBAPHY 



Nicolas Jen- 
son. 



Italic letter. 



Roman let- 
ter. 



beautiful books were printed in France within the 
next quarter of a century. 

In 1458 the King of France sent Nicolas Jenson 
to Mainz to learn the new art. On his return to 
Paris, he tried to get sufficient money to establish 
a press, but was not successful and went to Italy. 
In Venice he became famous. Printers had already 
preceded him and set up a press in Subiaco, in 
1465. The art soon spread to Rome, Milan, and 
other Italian cities, but the centre of printing and 
book-making was Venice. At the close of the 
fifteenth century, this city was renowned not only 
for the number of its printing-presses but for the 
beauty of the works they produced. Before the 
year 1500, over two hundred printers had prac- 
tised typography in Venice, numbering among 
them Aldus Manutius, who introduced the italic 
letter. Jenson perfected the roman type, which 
he used in 1471, but the letter had already been 
cast at Subiaco in 1465. Our roman letter of 
to-day is derived from the two scripts formerly 
used in Rome, — capitals from the letters used for 
inscriptions, and small letters from the cursive form 
employed for business correspondence. 

The roman type of Jenson was a letter of extra- 
ordinary beauty ; it has been frequently copied, but 



INVENTION OF TYPOGRAPHY 39 

never equaled. The gothic and roman forms 
struggled together for some time after the intro- 
duction of printing, but the latter finally triumphed. 
Roman type was first used in England in 1518, 
and by the year 1600 books were generally 
printed in that character. William Morris adopted 
the roman letter of Jenson as the model for the 
Kelmscott Press when it was started at Ham- 
mersmith, England; in 1891. 



CHAPTER IV 

EAKLY PRINTING-PRESSES 

rPHE most celebrated of the early printing-presses 
-*- were those of: 

Aldus Manutius, at Venice, fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries. 

Anthon}^ Koberger, at Nuremberg, fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries. 

Elzevir, In Holland, sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. 

Estienne, at Paris, sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. 

Plantin, at Antwerp, sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. 

Aldus Manutius was an eminent printer who 

Aldus 

Manutius. lived in Venice at the beginning of the sixteenth 
century. It is supposed that he went to Venice 
about 1489, and began printing there in 1494. 
He was a man of great learning and industry and 
exercised extreme care in the production of his 
works, which are characterized by good typography 
^40) 



EARLY PRINTING-PRESSES 41 

and correct texts. The Aldine press is celebrated 
for its editions of the Greek and Latin classics. To 
assist in the preparation of these volumes, Aldus 
gathered around him, as editors and proof-readers, 
the most scholarly men of his age. He estab- 
lished in Venice the Aldine Academy, the aim of 
which was to further the knowledge of classical 
Greek Uterature. To this Academy came artists 
and learned men from both the Levant and West- 
ern Europe. 

Greek grammars and dictionaries were pubUshed 
also by Aldus. He introduced the type called 
italic by the Latin and English peoples, and 
cursiv by the Germans. It is supposed to be 
formed upon the handwriting of Petrarch. 
Aldus put his prefaces and introductions in 
this type, and sometimes whole books. The pres- 
ent system of punctuation may be said to have 
been devised by him, as before his time but few 
marks had been employed and the use of these 
was not well regulated. 

The last of this family of printers died deeply 
in debt, and his printing apparatus was sold by 
his creditors. The house had existed about one 
hundred years. It had been noted for the superior 
character of its work and for its patronage by 



Anthony 



42 EARLY PRINTING-PRESSES 

men of letters, and had been a source of the 
greatest credit to Italy. 

Anthony Koberger began to print at Nurem- 
Koberger. j^gpg jj^ 1472. He was associated in business with 
Frederick Creusner, another famous Nuremberg 
printer. He is regarded by some as the most 
important printer and publisher of the fifteenth 
century. It is said that he had twenty-four 
presses at Nuremberg, besides having books 
printed for him in other towns. 

In 1480 Koberger published an interesting 
catalogue containing the titles of twenty-two 
books, not all, however, printed by himself. A 
copy of this catalogue is in the British Museum. 
He is said to have printed twelve editions of the 
Bible in Latin and one in German. His best known 
work, and the most curious, is the Nuremberg 
Chronicle, published in 1493. This book is a sum- 
mary of the history, geography, and wonders of the 
world, and contains about two thousand illustra- 
tions taken from three hundred wood-engravings, 
the same engraving being employed several times 
to represent different objects. The same cut was 
used to portray both Paris of Troy and the poet 
Dante. 



EABLY PRINTING-PRESSES 43 

Elzevir is the name of a celebrated family of Elzevir. 
Dutch printers and publishers of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries. Louis Elzevir, the 
founder of the house, issued his first work about 
1583. There were twelve printers of this family. 
The press became famous for its editions, in small 
size, of the Latin classics and of works of French 
authors on historical and poUtical subjects. As 
these printers were also booksellers, it is often 
difficult to determine the genuine Elzevirs. 

The Estienne family flourished during the Estienno. 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Paris and 
Geneva. The name is sometimes given Etienne, 
or Stephens, Stephanus being the Latin transla- 
tion of the French word Etienne. The name is 
regarded as one of the most honorable in the his- 
tory of typography. The first printer of this 
house, Henry, was contemporary with the rise of 
printing, as he was born about 1460 and died in 
1520. He published mathematical and theological 
works which were distinguished for their accuracy. 
His son Robert was a man of great learning; in 
his house conversation was carried on in Latin, 
even among the women and children. He issued 
about four hundred works and printed many edi- 



44 EABLY PRINTING-PRESSES 

tions of the Bible. His most important work was 
his Dictionary of the Latin Language, a book on 
which he worked day and night for more than two 
years, and which was for a long time the standard 
authority on its subject. He inchned to the Pro- 
testant faith and attempted to publish such works 
as he chose ; for this, he was obUged to leave France 
and went to Geneva. Henry, the son of Robert, 
also a learned man, printed in Paris and Geneva. 
He pubHshed many works, among them numerous 
editions of the Greek classics, but his fame as a 
scholar rests upon his Dictionary of the Greek 
Language. In the latter part of his hfe, as he suf- 
fered from pecuniary losses, he became restless, and 
shifted his residence from one place to another, 
doing much editorial work and also publishing 
books. After his death, which occurred in 1598, 
the reputation of the house was kept up for some 
time by other members of the family. 

Christopher Plantin was a celebrated printer 
Hantinf ^' and publisher of Antwerp. He was born in 1514, 
near Tours in France, and studied under the king's 
printer at Caen. In 1555 he set up a press at 
Antwerp, and published in that year his first 
volume, entitled Institution d^une Fille de Noble 



EARLY PEINTING-PRES8ES 45 

Maison. Although a good linguist, Plantin made 
no claim to scholarly attainments. He was a 
skilful business man and spent large sums of money 
on the details of his work to insure good typog- 
raphy. He employed a number of scholars and 
artists to assist in the preparation of his works, 
which were famous for their beautiful letterpress 
and fine copperplate illustrations. Plantin pub- 
lished books, not only in Latin and Greek, as had 
been done by Aldus and Estienne, but also in the 
vernacular of the people — in French, German, 
Flemish, Dutch, English, Spanish and ItaHan. 
He had printing-houses in Leyden and Paris, and 
an agency at Salamanca. He died in 1589, leaving 
considerable property to his children. Plantin 
had no son, but as three of his daughters had 
married men acquainted with the printing busi- 
ness, the establishment continued in the family. 
John Moret or Moretus,^ a son-in-law, succeeded 
Plantin as the head of the house in Antwerp. 

The most noted of the publications of the Plantin 
press was the Polyglot Bible, printed from 1569 
to 1573 by authority of Philip II. of Spain. It 



1 The name Plantin Moretus is sometimes given to the museum in 
the house of Plantin. 



46 EARLY PBINTING-PBESSE8 

was in the form of eight folio volumes and was 
in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Chaldaic, and Syriac. 
For four years forty men were continually at 
work on this book, and the labor alone cost forty 
thousand crowns. Only five hundred copies were 
printed, and a large number of these were lost at 
sea during transportation to Spain. 
, The printing-house continued in the family 
until 1875, when it was ceded to the city of Ant- 
werp, for 1,200,000 francs, to be forever main- 
tained as a public institution under the name of 
Mus6e the Mus^e Plantin. The museum consists of a 

Plantin. 

number of buildings around a square. Some 
of the rooms were the counting-rooms and offices 
of the printing-house, others were the private 
apartments of the family. The old press, type, 
proof-sheets, and other printing materials of 
Plantin and his successors are still preserved. 
The establishment furnishes a unique picture of 
the dwelling and adjoining business premises of a 
Flemish patrician of the end of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. The museum is regarded by printers as 
one of great interest, value, and beauty. 



CHAPTER V 

ENGLAND AND AMERICA 

WILLIAM GAXTON is the first printer who wini^^cax- 
^^ practised the art in England. Hewasborn,as *°°- 
he himself says/ 4n the Weald of Kent/' The year 
of his birth is not definitely known, but it was 
probably near 1420 or 1422, as he was apprenticed 
in 1438 to the mercer's trade. A few years after 
the latter date he left England for Bruges in the 
Low Countries, which was then the centre of his 
trade, and remained there for thirty years. In 
1462 he became manager, at Bruges, of a new 
association of English merchants. By 1470 he 
had entirely abandoned his business, and had 
entered the service of Margaret, Duchess of Bur- 
gundy and sister of Edward IV. Caxton had long 
been interested in the romances of the day and 
had translated some of them. Le Recueil des 
Histoires de Troyes was then in great demand, 
and as he wished to lend copies to his friends, 
he resolved to learn the art of printing. This 
was the first book printed in the English lan- 
(47) 



48 ENGLAND AND AMERICA 

First book ffua^e, but was issued without date or place of 

printed in the » » ' ^ 

ngiishian- publication. It was printed about 1474. The 
Game and Playe of the Chesse was the second 
book. About the place of its publication there has 
been much dispute, but it is generally supposed 
to have been printed at Bruges; some claim that 
it was printed in England. In 1477 Caxton 
left Bruges, and returned to England. Soon 
after his arrival in his native country, he began to 
print in Westminster. The first book printed in 
England was the Dictes and Sayings of the Philoso- 
phers. Some copies of this book are without the 
imprint, but one colophon gives the date of pub- 
lication as November 18, 1477. 

Caxton was not only a printer; he was also a 
translator and an editor. He edited all the books 
he printed and translated not less than twenty-two, 
among them the Golden Legend. The number of 
books he issued is about one hundred. They are 
mostly in English, although he was an excellent 
French scholar and had a fair knowledge of Latin. 
His influence, of course, was great in fixing the 
future of the English tongue. He died about 
1491, and his printing-press passed into the hands 
of Wynkyn de Worde, who had been his apprentice 
and assistant and who continued the business in 
the same house at Westminster. 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA 49 

In America printing began in the city of Mexico, panting in 
The first printer was Juan Pablos and the first m?Sco^~ 
book printed was La Escala Espiritual para 
Llegar al Cielo (A Spiritital Ladder for Reaching 
Heaven) of San Juan Climaco, issued about 1536. 
So far as known, no copy of this book now exists. 
The oldest American book extant, with a date, is 
the Manical de Adidtos, printed in 1540 by Juan 
Cromberger, a celebrated printer of Seville, of 
whom Pablos is said to have been the agent. 
Only the last four leaves of this book are in 
existence and are preserved in the library of the 
Cathedral of Toledo. About ninety books printed 
in Mexico bear dates of the sixteenth century, the 
greater number being ecclesiastical works. After 
Spanish the language most employed was Latin, 
then came Aztec and other native tongues. 

Peru was the next country in which printing 
was carried on. A press was established at Lima 

^ Peru. 

about 1584. The earliest known book issued by it 
was the Dodrina Christiana, in the Quichua and 
Aymara languages, printed by Antonio Ricardo. 
The first printing-press in North America was 
erected at Cambridge, Massachusetts, through the 

^ ' ? to United 

efforts of the Rev. Joss or Jesse Glover, who statea. 
died while bringing the materials to this place. 

4, 



60 ENGLAND AND AMERICA 

Glover's wife married Henry Dunster, the presi- 
dent of Harvard College, and he assumed the 
management of the press. It was operated by 
Stephen Daye, a workman who sailed with Glover, 
and in 1639 it issued The Freeman^ s Oath and an 
almanac. Its first important work was The Bay 
Psalm Book, printed in 1640. This press also 
issued the celebrated Indian Bible of Eliot and 
other of his works in the Indian language. 

Printing was begun in Boston in 1676, by John 
Foster. The first press in Philadelphia was set up 
by WilUam Bradford, under the patronage of the 
Friends. The first work issued by him was an 
almanac, in 1685. Bradford became involved in a 
religious controversy and removed to New York, 
where he began printing in 1693. An extract from 
some Virginia documents shows that printing was 
carried on in that Colony in 1682, and an imprint 
has been found dated St. Mary's, Maryland, 1689. 
Before the Revolution, about twenty-five towns 
were practising the art; and after the war ended 
and settlements were made west of the Alle- 
ghenies, the knowledge of printing spread rapidly 
through the country. 

Havana had a printing-press in 1787, and 
Montevideo, South America, in 1807. 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA 51 

Among the early books published in America, a 
few still retain their interest, not only for their 
quaintness but because of the influence they have 
exerted on the national character. 

John Cotton's catechism, or Milk for Babes, ^ ^ ^ 

' ' ' John Cotton's 

first issued in England, was reprinted at Cam- ^^lik to?" 
bridge, Massachusetts, in 1656. The fuU title ^^^^'•" 
reads : " Spiritual Milk for Boston Babes in either 
England. Drawn out of the Breasts of both 
Testaments for their Souls' Nourishment. But 
may be of like use to any Children. By John 
Cotton, B. D., late Teacher to the Church of Bos- 
ton in New England. '! 

This catechism was afterwards included in 
another famous book. The New England Primer,^ rpj^^ -^^^ 
the first edition of which is supposed to have ap- pSSer.*^ 
peared between 1687 and 1690. Besides the 
alphabet and the syllabarium, the Primer con- 
tained the Lord's Prayer, the Apostle's Creed, 
the Ten Commandments; the Catechism, which 
consisted of either the Westminster Assembly's 
"Shorter Catechism " or John Cotton's " Spiritual 
Milk for Babes ; " the poem of John Rogers, with 



1 A fine edition of the New England Primer, containing a history 
of its origin and development and fac-simile illustrations and repro- 
ductions, was prepared by Paul Leicester Ford, and published in 
1897. 



52 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA 



The Indian 
Bible. 



the picture of the martyr burning at the stake; 
sometimes another poem ; and various verses and 
precepts intended to inculcate wisdom and virtue. 
The one feature which must have made it popu- 
lar with children was its illustrations, especially 
the rhymed alphabet cuts ; thus the letter A is fol- 
lowed by a picture of the partaking of the forbid- 
den fruit, with the rhyme, 

In Adaw/s Fall 

We Sinned all 

In these early times a number of books were 
printed for the Indians. The Rev. John Ehot not 
only learned their language but translated the 
whole bible into it. This bible was printed by 
Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson in 1663; 
it is a typographical curiosity. Eliot translated 
also several other books for the Indians, and pub- 
lished in their language the catechism, a grammar, 
and a primer. 



Early manu- 
script and 
printed news- 
sheets. 



Manuscript journals, somewhat resembling our 
modern newspapers, existed in the time of Julius 
Caesar, when the proceedings of the Senate and 
the principal events in Rome were published in 
the Acta Diurna. There is a tradition of a 
printed news-sheet at Nuremberg in 1457, but no 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA 53 

copy is extant. The earliest German newspaper, 
the Frankfurter Journal, appeared in 1615. In 
England the first journal in print was the Weekly 
Newes, begun in 1622. Journalism in France is 
said to date from 1631, when the Gazette was 
first issued. The oldest official journal which is 
still published is the Peking Gazette. It has ex- 
isted for centuries, but the date of its establish- 
ment is not known. 

The fii'st journal in America appeared in Boston Eariyne\i 
on September 25th, 1690, under the name of gJIricS 
Puhlick Occurrences. This was a pamphlet rather 
than a newspaper. It w^as intended to be issued 
monthly, but it w^as soon suppressed by the 
General Court because of the nature of the reading 
matter. The Boston News-Letter was started in 
1704 and continued to be published until 1776. 
The Boston Gazette appeared on December 21st, 
1719, and The American Weekly Mercury, of Phila- 
delphia, one day later. The New England Courant, 
edited and printed by James Franklin, followed in 
1721. This was the paper upon which Benjamin 
Franklin began his career as a printer ; it was while 
setting type for his brother that the thought oc- 
curred to him that perhaps he could write as well 
as some of the contributors. The New York 



54 ENGLAND AND AMERICA 

Gazette was the first newspaper in that province. 
It was begun by William Bradford in 1725. 

The Pennsylvania Gazette of Philadelphia was 
started in 1728 by Samuel Keimer, but in less 
than a year it was bought by Benjamin Franklin. 
In 1821 it took the name of The Saturday Evening 
Post ; under this title the paper is still issued by 
The Curtis Publishing Company, and is the oldest 
existing journal in America. 

In England the first successful daily news- 
The first paper was The Daily Courant, which appeared 
paper?1u^ in 1702. It was a small sheet printed on one 

England 

and America, side only. The Postboy had started as a daily 
paper in 1695, but only four numbers were is- 
sued. The London Times, the most influential 
journal in Europe, is usually dated from 1788, 
but the paper was really founded in 1785, 
under the title of The London Daily Universal 
Register. In America daily newspapers began 
with the first issue of The American Daily Ad- 
vertiser of Philadelphia in 1784. The early 
American newspapers were small and contained 
little home news, the space being given up 
mainly to extracts from foreign journals. 

No sketch of the early history of printing in 
this country would be complete without some men- 



ENGLAND AND AMERICA 55 

tion of Benjamin Franklin, the most illustrious Benjamin 
American who has ever practised the art; for he ^^*°^^^' 
was not only a printer, but philosopher, statesman, 
diplomatist, author. Born in Boston in 1706, he 
was apprenticed at the age of twelve years to his 
brother James, to learn the printing trade. Because 
of the harsh treatment he received at his brother's 
hands, he slipped away from Boston on a sloop to 
New York. Failing to find employment there, he 
went on to Philadelphia, where he arrived, a boy 
of seventeen, with only a "Dutch dollar'! in his 
pocket. He began work at his trade, and in a few 
years succeeded in getting the government print- 
ing and bought The Pennsylvania Gazette. 

In 1732 Franklin issued the first number of 

Poor Richard's Almanack, which was pubUshed "Poor Rich- 
ard's Alma- 
every year for a quarter of a century. "Poor nack." 

Richard's Almanack " made Franklin famous. He 

had noticed that in many homes this almanac was 

the only book. He therefore filled the spaces 

between the remarkable days in the calendar with 

proverbial sentences inculcating industry and 

frugality as the means of obtaining wealth and 

thereby (according to Franklin's belief) securing 

virtue ; for he thought that the way to make people 

good was to help them to be happy. To the counsels 



' Speech of 



56 ENGLAND AND AMERICA 

of Poor Richard are due to some extent the shrewd, 
industrious, and thrifty habits of the typical Ameri- 
can. 

Frankhn's Speech of Father Abraham was 
ham"'^^^^^' r^pi'iiited in England and twice translated into 
French. It has been issued since in the principal 
European languages. It has been called "the 
most famous piece of literature the colonies pro- 
duced.'! 

It is impossible to notice within the limits of 
this volume Franklin's important work as colo- 
nial agent in England and as ambassador of the 
United States to France, and the innumerable 
benefits he conferred upon his countrymen by his 
inventions and discoveries and the many organiza- 
tions he either founded or improved. He died in 
Philadelphia, on April 17th, 1790, ''full of years 
and honor." 



CHAPTER VI 

TYPE-FOUNDING 

T?ROM the time of the invention of typography . . 
-^ until the middle of the sixteenth century, fo^Sfng. 
printers made their own type. Many printing- 
offices had only four or five sizes, and but small 
quantities of these. After 1550 the casting of 
types became a distinct business. 

Claude Garamond of Paris, a pupil of Geoffroy 
Tory, the great French engraver and printer, is 
known as the "father of letter-founders.'' 

In England, the first founder of note was 
Joseph Moxon, who began letter-cutting in 1659; 
but neither Moxon's types nor those of his imme- 
diate successors could compare with the type cast 
in France and Holland. William Caslon, who 
established a foundry about 1720, had greater 
success. His work possessed such technical excel- 
lence that England soon ceased to purchase type 
from Holland. This house was controlled by the 
Caslons to the fifth generation, and is still suc- 
cessful and flourishing. 

(5.7) 



58 TYPE-FOUNDING 

In America, type-casting was attempted as 
early as 1768. The first regular foundry was 
established by Christopher Sauer, at Ger- 
mantown, Pennsylvania, about 1772. Several 
unsuccessful efforts to establish foundries in 
the United States were made by various persons, 
among whom was Benjamin Franklin. In 1796, 
Binny & Ronaldson, of Edinburgh, began the 
business in Philadelphia. This was the first 
foundry which lasted for many years. The house 
was subsequently known as the Johnson Foundry, 
afterwards as the Mac Kellar, Smiths & Jordan 
branch of the American Type-Founders Company. 
Successful foundries were also established in New 
York, early in the nineteenth century, by Elihu 
White and D. & G. Bruce. 

Until near the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, all type was cast by hand. About 1828 
WilHam M. Johnson, of Long Island, made the 
experiment of casting type by machinery, but his 
types were too light and porous to be of practical 
use. In 1838 David Bruce, jr., of New York, 
S§by mS-^' "took out a patent for a type-casting machine which 
c inery. ^^^ more successful. This machine was after- 
wards improved and was generally adopted by 
the foundries of the United States; it was gradu- 



TYPE-FOUNDING 



59 



ally introduced, with modifications, into European 
foundries. 

Type-metal is an alloy of melted lead, tin, and 
antimony, sometimes hardened by an addition of Type-metal, 
copper or nickel. Large types for posting-bills 




BRUCE TYPE-CASTING MACHINE. 



are made from close-grained wood, such as box, 
maple, or pear; for this purpose, types of wood 
are lighter and cheaper than those made from 
metal. 

The tools made before the letter is cast are, first, 
the Counter-punch and the Punch, or more fre- 



60 



TYPE-FOUNDINQ 



The tools. 



The counter- 
punch. 



The punch. 



quently at the present day, an engraved Master- 
type; from the punch or the master-type is made 
the Matrix, or the mould for the letter or face of 
the type. The tool termed the Mould is that which 
holds the matrix during the process of casting. 

The punch-cutter first draws a geometrical 
framework, on which is determined the position of 
each line and the height of each character. The 
beauty of a printed page consists in the apparent 
precision of the types. The characters must seem 
uniform in every particular, but some allowance 
must be made for optical delusions ; occasional devi- 
ations must also be made to render each letter 
pleasing to the eye in any combination with 
other letters. 

The interior of the letter is not cut out, but the 
hollow of the letter, or that part of it which does 
not show black in the printed impression, is 
formed on steel in high relief. This is the Counter- 
punch. 

The Punch is made by impressing the counter- 
punch into the end of a short bar of soft steel. 
The interior of the letter is thus quickly made at 
one stroke, with much neater edges than could be 
given by cutting. The outer edges are cut away, 
and the model letter stands in high relief. 



TYPE-FOUNDING 61 

The punch is hardened and is forced into a flat, 
narrow bar of cold-rolled copper. The result is a 
reverse or sunken imprint of the letter on the 
punch, which is known as a strike, a drive, or an 
unjustified matrix. This is carefully finished and 
becomes the Matrix. The matrix is really the The matrix, 
mould for the face of the letter, but it is not the 
tool known by that name. 

Matrices are also produced by the electrotype 
process. In this method the punch of steel and tyj^ process 
the operation of striking are not needed. The maSfce?^ 
characters are first cut on type-metal; after some 
preparation the model letters are suspended in the 
bath of a galvanic battery, containing a solution 
of sulphate of copper. By the action of the electric 
current on the zinc and copper plates, atoms of 
copper are hberated, w^hich adhere to the suspended 
letters. When the deposit has become sufficiently 
thick, the letters are taken out of the bath and the 
shells of copper are removed. The shells are then 
backed up and are fashioned into movable matrices. 

The Mould consists of two pieces which are 
counterparts. When brought together, the in- 
terior sides of these two parts are in exact 
parallel. In the upper end is a seat for the 
matrix; the low^er end is left open for the inflow 



The mould. 



62 



TYPE-FOUNDING 



The process 
of casting 
type by 
machinery. 



of molten type-metal; between the two ends is the 
hollow into which the metal flows. The mould is 
immovable in the direction of the body-height^ of 
the type, but can be adjusted to suit the varying 
widths of different letters. However types may 
vary in face, they must be exactly alike in height 
of body. Uniformity of body-height is secured by 
having only one mould for all the letters of that 
body; it is only necessary to change the matrix 
for the thickness of each character. Each char- 
acter, however, requires a separate matrix. 

After the mould has been attached to the type- 
casting machine and the matrix placed in the 
mould, the process of founding is as follows: 

In the machine is a melting-pot to hold the 
metal, which is kept fluid by a gas-jet or a small 
furnace. In the centre of the pot is a pump with 
a plunger. At each revolution of the crank the 
plunger forces through an aperture enough of the 
molten metal to fill the mould and the matrix. The 
halves of the mould separate; by nicely adjusted 
leverage the matrix is drawn back from the 
face of the type, and the type is thrown out. The 
mould then closes automatically, and the plunger 



1 By body-height is meant the size of a letter considered down a 
page at right angles with the printed lines. 



TYPE- FO UNDING 63 



injects a fresh supply of metal which is dislodged 
as before in the form of a type. The mould is kept 
cool either by a blast of cold air or by cold water. 

The type comes out with a wedge-shaped strip 
of metal, called a jet, adhering to its lower end, 
which is broken off either by automatic breakers or 
by hand. On the corners of the bodies of the 
type are burs or sharp edges of metal; these are 
removed by a workman known as the ''rubber.'! 
The types are then set up in a long row, and are 
fastened face downwards in a grooved channel. 
Here the roughness at the jet-fracture is plowed 
out by a ''dresser,", with a hand-plane; this 
leaves the types with a shallow groove between 
the feet, which enables the body to stand on 
its feet, thus securing uniformity of height. After 
other processes of smoothing, the types are exam- 
ined under a magnifying-glass and every imperfect 
type is rejected. The perfect types are then 
packed in paper ready for use. The casting- 
machine is operated either by turning a small 
hand-crank or by steam. 

In hand-casting the workman held in his left Hand-cast- 
hand the mould, which was shielded to protect him ^^^' 
from being burned by the hot metal. With a 
spoon he poured the fluid metal into the mouth- 



64 TYPE-FOUNDING 

piece of the mould. At the same moment, with a 
violent jerk, he threw up his left hand, to drive the 
metal with force against the matrix. This re- 
quired great dexterity, for if the mould were not 
thrown up quickly and at the right instant, the 
metal would not penetrate the matrix. By this 
process only about four thousand types could be 
cast in a day. 

During the last thirty years, many improve- 
ments have been made in automatic type-casting 
machines. At different times attempts have been 
made to invent machines which should perform 
all the processes and dehver types without re- 
course to manual labor. The most successful 
of these machines was the one for which Henry 
Barth was granted a patent in 1888. This ma- 
chine, automatically, breaks off the jet, plows 
the groove between the feet, and smooths the 
feather-edges at the angles. By hand, the aver- 
age amount cast was 400 an hour; by the 
Bruce machine, of ordinary sizes of book type, 
the average is 100 in a minute; of small sizes 
of type, 140 or more can be cast in a minute. 



A 



GHAPTER VII 

TYPESETTING 

S the hand-compositor works he has before 
hun two inchned cases, one above the other, by hand. 



called, respectively. Upper Case and Lower 
Case. These contain the types — the upper case, 
capitals and small capitals, and the lower case, 
small letters. The compositor selects the proper 
types and forms with them a Une in an instru- 
ment held in his left hand, known as the com- 
posing-stick. This " stick " is really a three- 
sided tray or box; for ordinary book and 
newspaper work, it is from six to eight inches 
long. The width of the matter composed, or 
the length of the line, is regulated by a sHd- 
ing piece of metal and a screw. The line is 
"justified,'', or made the proper length, by the 
insertion and rearrangement of spaces, or pieces 
of metal of standard widths, which separate one 
word from another. After the stick has been 
filled, the type set up is placed on a shallow 
frame or pan, called a galley. When no greater 
spacing is desired between the lines than the 
6 (65) 



TYPESETTING 



types themselves afford, the matter is said to 
be "solid." When wider spacing is desired, thin 
strips of metal, called leads, are inserted between 
the lines; the work is then known as "leaded." 
The composed types are made into pages, and are 
locked up in forms on the imposing stone. 
Until 1821 no attempt was made to set type 
by mS ^°^ by machinery, and even then the effort was only 



.chinery. 



theoretical. In 1822 Dr. WilHam Chiu-ch, a native 
of the United States, while endeavoring to bring 
out other inventions in England, announced that 
he had discovered a method of casting and com- 
posing type automatically at an unusual speed; 
this, however, did not include distribution. He 
was granted a patent in England, but it seems 
that nothing more than a wooden model of the 
machine was ever made. In America the first 
patents were granted in 1840 and 1841 to Fred- 
erick Rosenberg and to Young and Delcambre. 
The first typesetting machine which continued to 
be used for practical work for a number of years 
was the one invented by WiUiam H. Mitchel, a 
brother of the Irish patriot. He took out his 
first patent in 1853, but his machine was finally 
superseded by others, for want of a good dis- 
tributer. 



TYPESETTING 67 



The Alden machine was built in 1857, but was 
not continued in commercial use. The Burr- 
Kastenbein machine, requiring hand-justifi cation, 
came out in the 70's; the Thorne, also requiring 
justification by hand, was invented about 1880. 
These were the only machines successfully used 
in the United States until 1886, when the Lino- 
type was introduced. The Mergenthaler, or 
Linotype, is the typesetting machine generally 
employed in this country; among other machines 
are the Simplex, the Burr-Kastenbein or Empire, 
and the Lanston. Among the machines brought 
out in Great Britain were the Fraser, the Hatters- 
ley, and the Mackie. 

Probably the first attempt to produce a machine 
to set ordinary types and justify them automati- 
cally was made by Felt, who was granted a patent 
in 1867. The machine failed to operate success- 
fully. The first successful machine to set, justify, 
and distribute type automatically was the Paige, 
completed about 1890. This machine is not in 
the market because of its great expense. 

The typesetting machine in its simplest form 
merely sets the type supphed by the founders; simplest form 
spacing out, justifying, making-up, and distribut- machine, 
ing must all be done by hand or on other machines. 



68 TYPESETTING 



In this style of machine about eighty-four char- 
acters are employed. The types of each character 
are placed in a brass channel about two feet long, 
side by side, and in a vertical position before the 
compositor. The machine is operated in the same 
manner as a typewriter: when the compositor 
strikes a certain letter on the key-board, the cor- 
responding character falls in position. This 
machine can only set types in a continuous line; 
another operator is required to justify them, 
or make them up in lines of uniform length. The 
McMillan machine has a mated justifying appa- 
ratus, but the distributer is a distinct machine. 
This machine was used successfully for some time 
in the office of the New York Sun. 

All the simpler forms of typesetting machines 
have been generally superseded by those in which 
composition, casting, and distribution are com- 
bined in one machine. 

The Lanston machine, which went into com- 
TheLanston niercial use about 1899, both casts and sets indi- 
vidual type. It permits the free and equal use of 
all the upper and lower case characters; these it 
casts and composes in justified Hues by a single 
automatic operation, which is controlled by a 
perforated paper ribbon, the product of the manual 



TYPESETTING 



operation of the key-board. The composed matter 
has the same appearance as handwork, except 
that the types are always new and the hnes are 
more evenly justified. Corrections are made 
by the withdrawal of the wrong character and 
the insertion of the right one; the Lanston ma- 
chine is therefore preferred by some authors for 
book-work, because it perixiits the correction of 
errors without discarding the whole line. This 
typesetting machine is in use in a large number of 
printing-offices, and it is claimed that it furnishes a 
letterpress equal to that of the best foundry type. 
The Mergenthaler, or Linotype, casts the letters 

1 . . ^ , . , , . The Mergen- 

properly justified, with spaces between words, in thaierma- 
sohd bars of the length of Une desired. The com- otype' 
positor dislodges brass matrices instead of types, 
and also space-bands. The latter are wedge- 
shaped, and are released, one by one, at the end 
of each word. The wedges are about three inches 
long; the thin part only at first is inserted, but 
just before the bar is cast, an apparatus is released 
which drives the whole series of letters and space- 
bands to just the right pressure required to produce 
the even justification of the fine. 

The matrices are then carried in front of the 
mould. The mould passes before the pot contain- 



70 TYPESETTING 



ing the molten metal, which is ejected through a 
row of holes into the mould. The metal chills and 
solidifies immediately, and the casting is accom- 
phshed without delaying the work of the operator. 
The cast line, or linotype, passes between knives 
to be finished to exact size, and is then placed on 
the galley. The matrices are at once returned to 
their channels in the magazine, and the space- 
bands sHde back into their box ready for immediate 
use. 

During composition on the Linotype, corrections 
can be made by changing or transposing any matrix 
in a line. If a correction is desired after the bar 
is cast, the whole line must be reset. The dis- 
carded bar is thrown into the melting-pot; the 
linotypes are also remelted after they have served 
their purpose. In operating the machine, as soon 
as one line is finished, the compositor starts another 
line; all that he is required to do is to manipulate 
the keys and start the fines. 

The present Linotype is the result of experi- 
ments begun in 1876. In a crude form it was 
developed about 1883, and was put in commercial 
use in 1886. It is employed in about thirteen 
hundred offices in America, including both large 
and small newspapers and many book houses^ such 




THE mi:k(;i:nthali;ii TVi'Ki^i:TTTi.\G machine (lixutvfe). 



TYPESETTING 71 



as Harper and Brothers and D. Appleton and Com- 
pany. The Mergenthaler machine is used also by 
most of the leading newspapers of Great Britain, 
quite extensively in Germany and France, and 
indeed, to some extent, in almost every part of 
the world. In the Boston Public Library, where 
the Linotype is employed to produce card cata- 
logues, etc., twenty-three languages are printed. 

Typesetting machines are employed chiefly for 
newspaper printing and for work which must 
be done quickly, but many pubHshers also use them; 
in quahty, the product of the machine is not 
equal to handwork, although in some instances 
only an experienced eye could detect the differ- 
ence. The machine reduces the cost of composi- 
tion, — one of the simpler forms setting types three 
or four times as fast as can be done by hand, 
and the output of the Mergenthaler being six or 
eight times greater than that of the hand-com- 
positor. It is only by employing the Linotype, 
which has so greatly cheapened typesetting, that 
our newspapers can afford to furnish to the pub- 
lic the vast amount of reading matter which is 
received daily. 



The Guten- 



CHAPTER VIII 

history of the printing-press 

Early Presses of Wood 

rpHE simple press of Gutenberg consisted of two 
berg press! -*- upright timbers, with crosspieces of wood at the 
top and bottom, and two intermediate cross-bars. 
It was operated entirely by hand. The type, sup- 
ported on one of the cross-timbers, was placed on 
wooden or stone beds, in frames called '^coffins/! 
which were laboriously moved in and out. After 
the type was inked and the paper laid, the platen^ 
was forced down upon the bed by means of a large 
screw. After each impression the platen had to 
be screwed up again, in order that the printed 
sheet might be removed and hung up to dry. 
Only about fifty impressions could be made in an 
hour. The early presses required two workmen — 
one to ink the type, and one to pull or to print. 

The Gutenberg press continued in use for about 
one hundred and fifty years, or from the middle 



1 The platen is the flat part or " plate " of a hand-press, which is 
brought down upon the form of type to make the impression. 

(72) 




OLD WOODEN PRINTING-PRESS, 1508. 

[After woodcut by Badius.] 



HISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 73 

of the fifteenth century to the early part of the 
seventeenth. 

About 1620 improvements were made in the 

The Blaeu 

old printing-press by William Janson Blaeu of P^ess. 
Amsterdam. By a device attached to the press, 
the bed could now be easily moved in and out, 
and a new form of hand-lever turned the screw. 
This machine could be made to produce in ten hours 
700 sheets, but the average performance was less. 
The Blaeu press contained about the only im- 
provements made in printing-presses between the 
time of Gutenberg and of Stanhope, and was used 
for about a century and a half. It was introduced 
into England, and is substantially the press upon 
which Benjamin Franklin worked during the time 
he spent in London, at the beginning of his career. 

Iron Presses 

Very little further improvement was made in ^^ 
the construction of printing-presses until the iiope press. 
year 1798, when the Earl of Stanhope had one 
built entirely of iron. 

About this time, paper began to be provided in 
larger sheets, as in 1799 Louis Robert of France, 
aided by St. Leger Didot, invented a machine for 



74 



HISTORY OF TEE PRINTING-PRESS 



The Franklin 



making it in a continuous web. The Stanhope 
press printed on one side of a large sheet by one 
impression. It lightened labor, but it did not ma- 
terially increase production. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, 
the Franklin press was introduced. This was 
only a modification of the Blaeu press; it could 
print 250 impressions an hour. 

The old presses were operated entirely by hand; 
inking-baiis *^® ^YV^ was inked with a pair of stuffed balls 
covered with skin. Until the middle of the nine- 
teenth century, the bed-and-platen system was the 
favorite method for printing fine books and illus- 
trations, and for that purpose it is still employed 
to a considerable extent. 

About 1816 George Clymer of Philadelphia 
designed a printing-press which dispensed with 
the screw. This machine was used to some ex- 
tent in England, under the name of the Columbian 
press. In 1822 Peter Smith devised a machine 
in which a toggle-joint was substituted for the 
screw with levers. 

The Washington Press, invented about 1829 by 
Samuel Rust of New York is the hand-press in 
general use at the present day in the United 
States. The platen is depressed by means of a 



The Colum 
bian press. 



The Washing- 
ton press. 



HISTORY OF THE PBINTING-PBESS 75 



bent lever acting on a toggle-joint, and is lifted 
by springs on either side. Automatic inking- 
rollers have been attached to the press. This 
machine is used for taking proofs of woodcuts, 
electrotypes, line-plates, and type matter mixed 
with cuts. An extra strong pattern made by 
Hoe and Company is employed for proving half- 
tones and other plates requiring excessive pressure. 
It gives a clear, sharp proof of the full size of 
the platen; a good print is obtained from the first 
"pull.'! 

Job or Treadle-Presses. Power Presses 

In the line of improvements in the art of print- 
ing, America did not lead. She watched the 
experiments of foreign inventors, imitated them, American ex- 

periments. 

and m some cases built upon them and made great 
advances. Printing by machinery from a rotating 
cylinder was made practicable in England as 
early as 1814, and the effort to quicken the bed- 
and-platen system was then given up by European 
experimenters. In America, however, the platen 
movement was taken up from a new point of 
departure and was made successful. The first 
improvement made by an American was in the 
direction of treadle-presses. 



76 



HISTORY OF TEE PBINTING-PBESS 



Treadle- 



The Gordon 
press. 



The Ruggles 
press. 



About 1820 Daniel Treadwell of Boston went 
to England and took out a patent for a treadle- 
press. This was the beginning of a series of 
important improvements in printing-presses. By- 
utilizing foot-power, the hands were left free to 
feed the machine and to take away the printed 
work; the press could thus be run by one operator. 
The speed of treadle-presses varies from 800 to 
1,500 impressions an hour, according to the skill 
of the workman. The inking of the form is auto- 
matic: a series of rollers, playing on a revolving 
disk, feeds the ink from a reservoir in the back part 
of the machine. The later treadle-presses have a 
wheel attached for belt-power, which increases 
their capacity and secures the steadier working of 
the machine. 

The Gordon is a small job-press which can print 
over 1,000 cards or small sheets an hour. The 
inventor, George P. Gordon, a printer of New 
York, began his experiments in 1834 or 1835, but 
did not apply for a patent until 1850. The Ruggles 
press was considered the best of the small 
presses; its manufacture began before 1840. 

About 1824, after returning to Boston, Tread- 
well attempted to bring out a power- or steam- 
press on the bed-and-platen principle, but his 




THK WASHINGTON HAND-PRESS. 



EISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 77 

establishment was burned, destroying his machine, 
and he was compelled to abandon the project. 
It is said that at least one book was printed on 
Treadwell's press. About 1830, Isaac Adams, also The Adams 
of Boston, took out a patent for a press which ^^^^^' 
embodied many of Treadwell's ideas. In this 
machine the platen was stationary. The bed of 
type did not move backward and forward as in the 
old hand-presses; it simply moved upward to press 
against the platen, and then down to its former 
place. Inking-rollers passed between the form and 
the impression surface. The press was afterwards 
enlarged and improved, so that it did in one day 
the work of ten ordinary hand-presses quite as well 
as had been done before. The larger sizes of this 
press have a maximum speed of 1,000 sheets an 
hour. The Adams presses were favorites for more 
than fifty years, and some are still in use. The 
Riverside Press employs a large number of these 
machines. 

Cylinder Presses 

The system of printing from a flat bed carried 
backward and forward beneath a cylinder was em- rj.-^^ fat-bed 
ployed to some extent as early as the fifteenth cen- preS!^^^ 
tury by printers of copperplate engravings. When 
this method was introduced into typography, it 



78 HISTORY OF THE PRINTING- PRESS 

worked a revolution in the art. There are many 
cylinder presses, but in all the radical principles 
are the same; the great number of patents granted 
have been mostly for improvements and devices of 
detail. In some the type is on a flat bed and the 
cylinder gives the impression; others have two 
cylinders, one holding the form and the other 
making the impression. 

At the present day the greater number of presses 
employed in ordinary book and job-work are job 
and cylinder presses. The cylinder presses have 
come into use since 1814, when the London 
Times was first printed by machinery. At that 
time there was a great desire in England for infor- 
mation concerning the state of Europe, as Napoleon 
had not yet been banished to St. Helena. More 
newspapers were demanded than could be quickly 
and promptly printed. About twenty-four men 
were required for an issue of six thousand copies of 
a journal, within twelve hours after the copy was 
set. Friedrich Koenig, who had come to England 
from Saxony, claimed to be able to solve the diffi- 
culty. After trying for many years to improve the 
old method of printing from two flat surfaces, he 
abandoned it entirely, and with the assistance of 
some London inventors, among whom were Bensley 



HISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 79 

and Napier, he had a machine built which was 
fairly tested in 1811.^ In this press the type was 
placed on a flat bed. The cylinder which revolved 
above it stopped three times; the first third of the 
turn received the sheet upon one of the tympans^ 
and secured it by the frisketf the second made the 
impression and permitted the removal of the sheet 
by hand ; the third returned the empty tympan for 
another sheet. This machine was a turning point 
in the printing art, for it showed the greater speed 
and merit of the cylinder press. 

Koenig afterwards devised a continuously re- xheKoenig 
volving cylinder press; he also designed a two- p^®^^^- 
cylinder press which printed one side of the paper 
at a time, and a two-cylinder press which printed 



1 Many printers Ixlieve that Koenig's success was due to his adopt- 
ing the ideas of William Nicholson, a scientific man of the day. 
Nicholson had taken out a patent for improvements in the construc- 
tion of the printing-press, but had put none of them to practical use. 

« The tympan is a framed appliance hinged to the outer end of the 
bed of a hand-press. It receives the sheet to be printed and com- 
pletely covers the bed when folded down upon it. Its purpose is to 
soften and equalize the pressure by means of blankets between its 
two parts. 

s The frisket is a thin framework of iron hinged to the top of the 
tympan. A sheet of paper is pasted over it ; from this, spaces are cut 
out to permit contact between the type and the sheet to be printed. 
It holds the printed sheet in place, and the sheet pasted upon it keeps 
clean the parts not to be printed. The frisket is folded down upon 
the tympan and the tympan Is then folded on the bed ; this brings 
the sheet down on the face of the form ready to receive the im- 
pression. 



80 EiSTOBY OF THE PBINTING-PBESS 

both sides of the paper at one operation. The 
latter has received the name of the perfeding-press. 
In this press there were two forms of type, one at 
each end of a long bed. After the paper had been 
printed on one side by one cylinder, it was carried 
to the other cyhnder and printed on the opposite 
side. The cyhnder presses erected by Koenig in the 
office of the London Times, in 1814, printed on one 
side of the paper at the rate of about 1,000 sheets 
an hour. His press which printed on both sides of 
the paper could turn out 1,500 or 1,800 perfect 
copies in an hour. There was no further impor- 
tant advance in newspaper printing for many years. 
The cyhnder press was afterwards simphfied 
and improved by other men, and by 1824 the de- 
sign was substantially that of the cyhnder press 
of the present day. 

The first cyhnder press employed in the United 

States was made about 1832 by Robert Hoe, the 

founder of the firm of R. Hoe and Company. This 

The single ^^^ ^^^ single large cyhnder press. In this ma- 

Spress.^^" chine the cylinder made one revolution for each 

impression and never stopped. 

Hoe and Company and Adams, who also intro- 
duced a press about 1830, made nearly aU the 
printing-presses used in America for the next thirty 



HISTORY OF THE FEINTING- PEESS 81 , 

years — Hoe manufacturing cylinder presses and 
Adams platen presses. 

The stop-cylinder press was brought out by a 
Frenchman named Dutartre, in 1852. It was cylinder 
afterwards introduced into the United States and 
improved in many ways. As its name indicates, 
the cylinder is stopped and started again; the type 
is carried on a flat bed. It can print from 1,000 
to 1,500 impressions an hour, and the finest en- 
gravings at the rate of 800 impressions an hour. 

On the cylinder presses, only one sheet could 
be printed at each forward movement. A double 
speed was secured by having a feeder at each 
end, and, after one sheet had been printed, stop- 
ping and reversing the cylinder, so as to print 
another sheet on the return movement. Printing 
on the return movement was the method adopted 
by Koenig in liis improved press. 

The Koenig press, introduced in 1814, was run 
by machinery, but it was extremely compli- 
cated. It was Augustus Applegath who first ^^ , ^ 

° ^^ ° Use of steam- 

made practicable the use of the steam-press for power. 

popular printing. The New York Sun was the 

first newspaper in America to use steam instead of 

man-power; it made the substitution soon after 

the estabhshment of cheap newspapers in 1833. 

6 



82 HISTORY OF THE PBINTING-PBE88 

Some firms employed a horse or a mule, which 
they drew up in the morning by tackle to an upper 
story and let down at night in the same way. 

The early cylinder machines were used exclu- 
sively for newspapers. They wore the type badly, 
and for this reason they were not liked by book- 
printers. The pressmen gave them the name of 
"type-smashers." In 1835 Harper and Brothers 
printed all their books on hand-presses, and as late 
as 1849, the law books of the firm of Banks and 
Gould were printed on these presses, but after 
this the use of the hand-press was discontinued for 
commercial book-work in New York city. 

Rapid printing did not become a possibility 
until the introduction of cyhndrical inking-rollers 
Composition ^^^^^ of gl^e and molasses, a compound which had 
eri^^^'^*^^^" loiig been used in the potteries of Staffordshire. 
It is said that two persons, Forster and Harrild, 
first tested, by the use of balls, the adaptability 
of this material for ink-printing ; the press-builders 
soon began to cover their inking-cylinders with it, 
instead of leather or india-rubber. The dis- 
covery that this composition could be used in- 
stead of the balls took place about 1810, but it 
was many years before rollers were generally 
adopted. The Donkin and Bacon machine built in 



HISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 83 

1813 for the University of Cambridge (England) 
was the first printing-press in the world to discard 
the ancient balls for the composition inking-roUers. 
As late as 1835 every printer's apprentice in 
England learned the use of the pelt balls. Com- 
position rollers seem to have been introduced into 
New York about 1826. The chief ingredients now 
used are glue, sugar, and glycerine. 

Until 1847 the newspapers of the United 
States were printed on single small-cylinder and 
double-cylinder machines. On the single cyHnder 
presses, 2,000 impressions could be taken in an 
hour; on the two-cylinder, 4,000, printing, how- 
ever, on only one side of the paper. The demand 
for papers containing the latest news led to ex- 
periments in making faster machines, and the out- 
come was the type-revolving press. The actual 
introduction of this press was due to Richard M. 
Hoe of New York. 

The first Hoe type-revolving machine was placed 
in the office of the Public Ledger in Philadelphia, revolving 
in 1847. The distinctive feature of this new press 
was the fastening of the forms of type on a central 
cylinder placed in a horizontal position. The type 
was held firmly in place, and the cylinder was 
revolved at any required speed without danger of 



84 HISTORY OF THE FEINTING- PBESS 

the type's falling out. Around the central cylinder, 
from four to ten impression-cylinders were placed, 
according to the amount of work required. The 
sheets were fed in by boys. The capacity was about 
2,000 sheets to each feeder an hour. A four-cylinder 
machine could thus print about 8,000 sheets an 
hour, and with ten impression-cylinders the ca- 
pacity was 20,000 sheets an hour, in both cases 
printing on only one side at a time. To print the 
other side of the paper, a second rotary press was 
needed, and the folding was done by the old method. 

Although it did not overcome all difficulties, 
this machine effected a revolution in newspaper 
printing. The circulation of the old papers was 
greatly increased, and many new journals came 
into existence. The first Hoe press used in Europe 
was erected in the office of La Patrie in Paris, in 
1848. Augustus Applegath, an Englishman, de- 
vised a machine of the same nature as the Hoe 
press, but with a vertical instead of a horizontal 
cylinder. The Hoe press preceded this machine 
by several months. The London Times finally 
discarded the Applegath presses and substituted 
those made by Hoe. 

A still further advance was made by the intro- 
pStes!^ duction of stereotype plates on a curve. For fine 



HISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 85 

work, such as the illustrations of magazines and 
some color-plates in newspapers, electrotypes are 
used, as they give a clearer impression and are more 
durable than stereotypes; but for ordinary news- 
paper printing, a curved stereotype plate is made 
for each page. The page is first set by the linotype, 
then a mould in papier-mache is taken of the type. 
These moulds, when dried, are put into the casting- 
box and filled with melted metal. By the Hoe 
machines, a matrix and four stereotype plates can 
be made in seven minutes ; the plates are moulded 
and cast with a curved surface which fits them to 
the cylinder. By dupHcating the forms, several 
presses can be run at the same time. 

Since about 1860 stereotype plates made by the 
papier-mach^ process have been largely employed 
by the new^spapers of both England and the United 
States. • 

About 1835 Sir Rowland Hill conceived the idea 
of a press which should print both sides at once 
from a roll of paper. In the first World's Fair uousweb. 
held in London in 1850, Thomas Nelson of Edin- 
burgh exhibited a little cylinder press, which 
demonstrated the possibility of printing at one 
operation both sides of an endless roll of paper. 
It was regarded by the public and also by Nelson 



The contin- 



86 



HISTORY OF THE PBINTING-PBESS 



The Bullock 
press. 



as nothing more than a mechanical toy. Em-opean 
press-builders failed to utilize the principle, but 
it was developed and put into practical operation 
in the United States. The first machine to print 
on both sides of a continuous web was construct- 
ed in 1865 by William Bullock, of Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania. The Cincinnati Times used the 
first press built in his shops; the roll contained 
five or six miles of linear measurement. As at 
first constructed, this press was unreliable, especi- 
ally in the delivery of the papers, but it was 
afterwards improved and was used to a consider- 
able extent. It printed ten thousand newspapers 
an hour, without the assistance of feeders. 

About 1868 the proprietors of the liOndon 
Times built a rotary perfecting-press. This was 
similar in construction to the Bullock press, except 
that the cylinders were all of one size and were 
placed one above the other. A press on the same 
principle was also devised by Marinoni of Paris. 

Several difficulties were encountered in the con- 
struction of rotary perfecting-presses to print 
from a single roll or continuous web of paper, and 
these were not overcome until 1871, when the Hoe 
The Hoe weh- ^^b press was devised. The first press of this kind 
perfecting ^^^ placed in the office of Lloyd's Weekly London 



The Walter 
press. 



HISTORY OF THE PBINTING-PEESS 87 

Newspaper, and the first in the United States in 
the Tribune office in New York. The Hoe ma- 
chines are used by most of the large newspaper 
offices of the United States and Great Britain. 

Hoe and Company continued their experiments, 
and produced the Double-supplement, the Quad- 
ruple, the Sextuple, and the Octuple press. They 
consist of a multiplication of cylinders and plates, 
while the general principles remain the same. 

Hand folding-machines were for a long time Automatic 
used in newspaper offices, but it was highly desir- ^ ^^' 
able that the press should deliver the papers folded. 
Folders were attached to the fast presses, but the 
output was not more than 8,000 an hour. A 
rotating folding-cylinder was patented by Hoe and 
Company in 1875; this folded papers at the rate, 
of 15,000 an hour. These folding-cylinders were 
first placed on presses built for the Philadelphia 
Times, and were operated in the Centennial Ex- 
hibition of 1876. 

Hoe and Company have also built rotary 
presses for illustrated work. In 1886 a per- presses for 
fecting-press was constructed for Theodore L. work. 
De Vinne, of The Century Magazine, to print 
the plain forms of that periodical. This magazine 
is printed on two kinds of rotary presses. The 



The Cottrell 



88 HISTORY OF THE PBINTING-PBESS 

plain forms, without cuts, and the advertisements 
are printed from an endless roll of paper, on sixty- 
four curved electrotype plates, fastened on two 
cylinders. The paper is printed on two sides, 
thirty-two pages to a side, and is cut and folded 
ready for the binders. On the other press, at 
each revolution, sixty-foiu* pages, largely of the 
finest illustrations, are printed on one cyUnder, 
necessarily on one side only. To preserve full black- 
ness and fineness of line, in the full-page illustra- 
tions the second side is not printed until the first 
side is dry. The illustrations are printed with the 
type, always in black ink. Hoe and Company have 
built for the Century a machine that will print 
two colors at each revolution. The fine colored 
illustrations which appear in the November and 
December numbers of this magazine are printed 
on flat-bed presses with the stop-cylinder move- 
ment. 

Among other fast printing-machines which do 
good work are the Cottrell, the Miehle, and the 
Goss. The Cottrell presses comprise a variety of 
types, — a lithographic press, a stop-cylinder, a 
two-revolution, a flat-bed perfecting, and a web 
press. The Flat-bed Perfecting press prints on the 
second side of a sheet already carrying half-tone 



HISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 89 

pictures on the first. ^^Offset/' or smirching, is 
prevented by means of the shifting tympan mecha- 
nism which unwinds from a manila roll sufficient 
paper to cover the impression surface. After the 
mechanism is set, the tympan makes the changes 
automatically at stated intervals, according to 
the length of time the offset roll is needed. 
The large editions of many illustrated papers and 
magazines are printed on the Cottrell Rotary 
Machine, which gives the impression on both 
sides of a web of paper at one operation, and 
cuts off the sheets, folds and trims them, ready 
for binding. This press is adapted to fine illus- 
trated work in one or more colors. On the 
Cottrell presses the Curtis Publishing Company 
issues every month 950,000 copies of one of its 
periodicals, and every week 340,000 copies of 
another journal. The weekly editions of other 
magazines sometimes reach 500,000. For pages 
containing fine illustrations, presses are not run at 
the speed with which newspapers are printed. 

The Miehle presses are built for book and job- TheMieWe 
work, and also for newspaper printing, and have ^^^^^* 
remarkable speed. 

The present tendency in press-building seems to 
be towards greater compactness and directness. 



90 HISTORY OF THE PBINTING-PBESS 

The Goss The Goss, which is a straight-line machine, prints 
from four separate rolls of paper; the sheets issue 
in parallel lines, and are united, after cutting, in 
folded papers. 

Rotary presses have proved indispensable in 
newspaper offices, where only one size of paper is 
used and where a large edition must be printed in 

Presses for a short time. For book and job-work, in which 

book-work. 

many sizes of paper are required because of the 
different sizes and numbers of pages, much of the 
printing is done on fiat-bed machines, some of 
which are perfecting presses with shifting tym- 
pans. Many books, pamphlets, and illustrated 
periodicals, however, are printed on the Hoe 
Electrotype Rotary Perfecting Press, which, as its 
name indicates, gives the impression on both sides 
of the sheet at one operation. 

Printing by At the present time an effort is being made in 
e ec rici y. England, to introduce a system of printing^ from 
types by the electrochemical process, which dis- 
penses with the use of ink. Mr. Friese Greene, 
a London photographer, has produced an electro- 
graphic paper, and a syndicate in London has 

1 An account of this system is given in the supplement to the New 
York Tribune of February 11th, 1900 ; also in the Scientific American of 
November 24th, 1900. 



HISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 91 

been engaged for a year or more in perfecting the 
process. The experiments seem to have yielded 
satisfactory results, and the syndicate is now 
demonstrating the workings of the new system. 
Several of the great London dailies have placed 
their plants at the disposal of the syndicate for a 
complete test of the process. 

The materials with which the paper is sensitized 
are mixed with the pulp in the process of manu- 
facture. The electricity flows through the paper 
from the face of the type, and the chemicals con- 
tained are turned black. The paper is said to be 
unaffected by any other agent than the electric 
current; it may be kept for any length of time, 
and sent to the press directly from the roll as 
manufactured; it yields instantly a deep black, 
permanent impression, and is ready for distribu- 
tion immediately, as no drying is required. 

An ordinary printing-press is used, divested of 
its inking mechanism, and having the cylinder 
which carries the paper covered with a suitable 
conducting metal. 

The intensity of shade is regulated by the degree 
of influence exerted on the paper ; this influence is 
proportional to the amount of electricity passing 
through the paper. 



92 HISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 

It is claimed that the cost of the current 
for the actual printing is much less than that 
of ink, also that the power necessary to drive 
the press is diminished, and that there is a saving of 
at least one-third in the original cost of the press. 

The new process is said to lend itself to all 
speeds, even to that of the fastest web-press. 
The work is considered perfect in every particular. 

Printing by ^^ these sheets pass the press, an account is 
photography. p^^]3iighe(j of an experiment in printing by the 
photographic process, which, if successful, will do 
away with movable types. The originator of the 
idea believes that if pictures can be multiplied by 
photography, there is no reason why the text 
should not be reproduced by the same method. 

A machine, which is substituted for the lino- 
type, sets up lettered cards in the rack according to 
copy and photographs them, one line at a time; 
the glass sensitive-plate moves automatically and 
takes the matter line by line until it is all set up. 
The negative is developed in the usual manner. 
After the plate is etched it is ready for the press, 
and is printed in the same manner as a line-plate 
is printed at the present time. It is said that 
within thirty minutes after the first exposure 



HISTORY OF THE PRINTING-PRESS 93 

of the negative the zinc plate is ready to go to 
press. 

A fact of great importance, as regards the cost of 
printing, is that one set of letters is to serve for all 
sizes of type. The distance of the camera from the 
letters determines the size of the text as it is to 
appear in the finished work. 

If the discovery can be put to practical use, the 
saving in the cost of printing materials will be 
almost beyond computation, as in place of the ex- 
pensive stock of type the publisher is now obliged 
to carry, he will need only a few photographic 
machines and the lettered cards which can be 
kept in small space. 

These two systems are, of course, still in their 
infancy, but if proved to be of real advantage they 
will work another revolution in the art of printing. 



paper. 



CHAPTER IX 

NEWSPAPER PRINTING 

A SIDE from its general framework, a newspaper 

tive processes -^ press consists of the apparatus for the feed- 
in the print- 
j^i^g of a news- ing-in of the paper, the ink-fountains or troughs, the 

rollers and cylinders for distributing and trans- 
ferring the ink, the cylinders carrying the stereo- 
type and the electrotype plates, the impression- 
cylinders, the paste-fountain, the folder, and some 
minor appliances. 

The paper from which newspapers are printed is 
made in long webs or rolls, varying in length from 
three to nine miles, and is prepared at special mills. 
Each roll is made upon an iron core, which forms 
the hub through which a metal axle is passed. 
This roll or wheel of paper is placed at one end of 
the press just above the floor, and the end of the 
sheet is led between the cylinders; when the 
machinery starts the paper unwinds as fast as it 
is needed. These long rolls are sometimes uneven, 
varying in tenacity or being more tightly wound 
in some places than in others; the result is that 
the paper snaps in two and necessitates the 
stopping of the press. This difficulty is overcome 
(94) 



NEWSPAPER PEINTING 95 

either by tension springs, which permit the sheet 
automatically to adjust itself to all conditions, or 
by an endless belt which rests on top of the paper 
and pushes it along at a speed equal to and some- 
times greater than that of the plate-cylinders. 

The receptacle for the ink, known as the ink- 
foimtain, is a trough located almost directly over 
the web of paper. A system of rollers and cylin- 
ders distributes and transfers the ink from one 
to another until it is applied evenly to the surface 
of the stereotype or the electrotype plates. 

Each plate-cylinder is in contact with a blanket- 
covered cylinder, and by passing between these 
the continuous web of paper receives the impression. 
The paper is drawn between two pairs of cylinders, 
one pair giving the impression for one side, and the 
other the impression for the other side. The web 
is then carried up to the top of the machine and is 
cut in two lengthwise, or between the newspapers, 
so as to free one from the other. These sec- 
tions are passed over the angle-bars, which switch 
one directly over the other, so that they may 
enter the folder in their proper order. By pass- 
ing over a triangular metal piece, called the 
''former," they receive a fold the length of the 
paper; they are then cut crosswise and folded 



NEWSPAPER PRINTING 



almost simultaneously, the second fold, in the 
middle, leaving the paper just as it is commonly 
sold by the news-dealers. The papers are counted 
automatically, in lots of twenty-fives, fifties, or 
hundreds, every twenty-fifth, fiftieth, or one- 
hundredth paper, being thrown out a few inches 
in advance of the others, so as to make a sharply 
defined line in the pile. Some newspapers are 
pasted at the back by an appliance on the 
press ; others are issued without being pasted. 

The Improved Double Quadruple Combination 
Octuple Press is the latest newspaper perfecting 
press designed by Hoe and Company; they are now 
building a number of this type for the Chicago 
Tribune. For ordinary black work, this press can 
print, cut, paste, fold, count, and deliver, in an 
The output of hour, 24,000 papers of eighteen, twenty, twenty- 
newspaper two, or twenty-four pages: 48,000 of twelve, four- 
web-perfect- ^ J f t> } i } 

ing press. teen, or sixteen pages ; 72,000 of ten pages ; and 
96,000 of four, six, or eight pages. When print- 
ing twelve pages, the press can issue 60,000 papers 
an hour: 48,000 in book form and 12,000 composed 
of two six-page sections laid on each other and 
delivered folded together. This method is called 
''collecting'/, twelve-page papers. 

When printing colored plates, this machine can 
produce in an hour 96,000 four-page papers, with 



NEWSPAPER PBINTING 97 

all the pages in two colors; or 48,000 six or eight- 
page papers, all inset,^ with all the pages in two 
colors. 

This is one of the largest printing-machines of 
this design that has been constructed, up to the 
present time, for newspaper work. 

Some of the leading newspapers issue supple- 
ments with colored pictures. The plates for the ing. ^'^^^^ 
different colors are placed upon separate cylinders, 
opposite to each of which is attached an impression- 
cylinder. 

The large newspaper offices which issue sup- 
plements with colored illustrations, have two 
distinct styles of presses, one being used for 
ordinary newspaper work in black only, or having 
some color-attachments added in a manner which 
permits the work to be done in a short space of time 
— an essential feature for a daily. On this press, 
the color work is printed from stereotype plates, 
against soft felt blankets, and the printing is done 
on the web of paper without any preparation, ex- 
cept the proper placing of the plates on the cylin- 

1 In newspaper work, inserted or *' inset " means that the sheets are 
delivered folded one inside the other, as the sheets are arranged in a 
quire of writing-paper, but not necessarily pasted, although this is 
generally done. When the sheets are not all placed one inside 
the other, but the sections are laid one on top of the other, full- 
page size, and then folded together to half-page size, the method is 
called " collecting." 

7 



NEWSPAPER PRINTING 



ders, so that the colors will be printed in their 
respective places according to the design. 

The other press is the Electrotype Multi-Color 

type muiti- Machine, and is used to produce the best class of 
color and half-tone work for Sunday magazines, 
comic, and music sheets. This press prints from 
electrotype plates, against a very hard surface on 
the impression cylinder, called hard-packing, 
which shows up all the imperfections of the 
plate. These imperfections have to be equalized 

"Overlay" ^^^^ overcome by processes called ^'overlaying'! 

re^dyT^"^ and ''making ready"; an "overlay", paper is 
placed over a plate to bring out the solids, 
middle tones, and different shades that go to 
make a perfect picture; on the amount of time 
spent on this preliminary work and the fineness 
with which it is done depends the quality of the 
printing when the press is started. Some of the 
leading joiu"nals of New York City have presses 
of this description, printing automatically as 
many as eleven colors at one operation. The 
whole eleven colors can be printed on one double- 
width web of paper, i. e. a roll the width of four 
newspaper pages, giving five colors on one side 
and six colors on the other side of the web ; or the 
eleven colors can be printed on two double-width, 



NEWSPAPER PRINTING 99 

or four-page, webs. In the latter case one web 
is printed in four colors on one side and two 
colors on the other side; the other web in two 
colors and three colors; these webs, when the 
sheets are cut apart, brought together and folded, 
make a publication of from eight to thirty-two 
pages, with all the pages in either two, three, or 
four colors. The papers are printed at a running 
speed of 16,000 to 24,000 copies an hour, or as 
many as 48,000 for the lesser number of pages. 

The output of 96,000 eight-page or 48,000 six- 
teen-page papers an hour, with part printed in 
four colors in a fine manner, is equal to an issue 
of 270 papers of eight pages, or 145 sixteen- 
page papers, per second. 

The Electrotype Multi-Color Press, as stated, 
has eleven pairs of cylinders, or couples, each 
couple consisting of one plate- and one impression- 
cyhnder. Each pair has its own ink-fountain and 
numerous ink and distributing-rollers for the 
different inks. The paper passes from one couple 
of cylinders to the other to receive the various 
colors. Before the press is started on its regular 
run for producing the editions, which sometimes 
amount to as many as 800,000 copies for one 
week's issue, a proof of each color is taken 
L.o? C. 



azmes. 



102 NEWSPAPER PRINTING 

oarries4owFK44s--ef -paper, each the width of four 
newspaper pages and weighing from 1500 to 1800 
pounds each. 

The fine colored plates which illustrate cer- 
o?l?me m?g- ^^^^ numbers of some magazines are printed on 
the same kind of presses that is employed to a 
great extent for book-work — fiat-bed presses with 
the stop-cyhnder movement. These colored illus- 
trations are produced at the rate of 800 impres- 
sions an hour for each separate color. The merit 
of a colored illustration begins with the de- 
sign and its adaptability to color. If the design is 
not good and adaptable, it will not make a good 
print. The dissection of a colored sketch requires 
an artist of great ability and experience. He must 
know (not guess) how much or little color to put 
on each plate: he must understand the proper 
sequence of overlapping colors. That done, the 
printing of the plates is comparatively simple work. 
These mammoth presses possess a wonderful 
fascination when running at full speed. To watch 
the paper enter the machine simply as a blank roll, 
fly swiftly from cylinder to cylinder to receive the 
impressions of stereotypes, electrotypes, and half- 
tones, in black and in color, separate into news- 
papers under the action of the knife, again divide 
into sections, and issue from the press neatly 



NEWSPAPER PRINTING. 103 

folded and counted, ready for delivery, gives one 
the impression of a force not only wonderful 
but superhuman. One marvels at the in- 
ventive skill which has achieved this mechanical 
triumph and which holds within itself the power 
to further the march of civilization by aiding in 
the dissemination of knowledge among the people. 
In the large newspaper offices every arrangement 
is made for performing each step of the work 
with the greatest possible speed and also for furnish- Arrange- 
ing the most recent news even up to the last few fSrnishSg 
minutes. A button is turned, a red light flashes 
through the pressroom, and the rapidly-flying 
cylinders stop immediately; a green light shows, 
and the pressmen are ready to take up important 
news. When games and races are being held, a 
man seated alongside the press is in direct commu- 
nication with the scene of action by telegraph and 
by telephone. " Crawford wins," flashes over the 
wire. " Crawford wins ! '! cries the operator to a 
workman seated on the press. The words are 
instantly set and inserted, and in a few seconds 
they appear in the finished paper. Within three 
minutes after a game ends, two of the leading 
dailies of New York sell on the streets papers 
announcing the result. 



EEPEODUCTIVE PKOCESSES 



(105) 



KEPEODUCTIVE PKOCESSES 



CHAPTER I 

STEREOTYPING AND ELECTROTYPING 

STEREOTYPES are plates of type-metal and 
^ are made by casting; electrotypes are pro- 
duced by galvanic action. 

Stereotyping and electrotyping have proved a 
source of great economy to both the printer and 
the publisher. Before the discovery of these pro- 
cesses, a work to be printed as occasion required 
had to be kept standing in type or else reset for 
each edition. By electrotyping the forms, only 
a small nimiber of the first edition need be printed, 
as additional copies can be taken off at any time. 
The plates occupy much less space than type 
matter kept in form, and can easily be stored 
away for future use. The printer^s type is re- 
leased for other work, which in itself is a decided 
advantage. These two processes also save wear of 
the original type or cut. Electrotypes have 
superseded stereotypes for book and magazine 
work, as they give a clearer impression and are 
more durable. 

(107) 



108 STEREOTYPING AND ELECTEOTYPING 

Three methods of stereotyping are known, — the 
stereotyping, plaster, the clay, and the papier-mach^. Only 
the last is now much employed. 

The process of casting type-metal in moulds of 
procesr^^^ plaster-of-paris was discovered by William Ged, a 
goldsmith of Edinburgh, who began his experi- 
ments about 1725. His method proved successful, 
but he could not get the printers to use his plates. 
Numerous experiments followed, but all other 
methods were superseded by that of the Earl of 
Stanhope, which was introduced about 1804. The 
plaster process served for types on book-work for 
about fifty years, but it was unsuitable for engrav- 
ings, and was found too slow for daily newspapers. 
The first work stereotyped in America was 
the Westminster Catechism, produced in New 
York, by John Watts, in 1813. Watts, however, 
sold out and went to Austria in 1816. The actual 
introduction of the art in America was due 
to David Bruce, one of the two brothers who 
afterwards established the type-foundry known 
by that name. In 1813 Bruce returned from 
England, where he had been endeavoring to study 
the methods of Lord Stanhope; he began his 
experiments, and in 1814 succeeded in casting 
plates for the New Testament. 



STEREOTYPING AND ELECTBOTYPINO 109 

The papier-mach^ process was discovered by 
Genoux of France, in 1829, and was introduced 
into Great Britain in 1832. 

In the papier-mache process, a paper matrix is rpj^g papier- 
first made of the page of type by machinery. The ^^.^^ ^""^ 
material for the matrix is formed by pasting 
together layers of thick imsized paper and tissue 
paper, each layer being carefully rolled smooth with 
a heavy iron roller. The matrix is dried by steam- 
heat; to expel any remaining moisture, it is ex- 
posed for hah a minute, either in an oven or to 
the flame of a gas-jet. After the edges are trimmed, 
the matrix is placed in the casting-box and filled 
with melted metal. On being removed from the 
casting-box, the superfluous metal is cut off from 
the plate, which is then trimmed by hand, and 
shaved on the reverse side until it is brought to 
the exact thickness required. These operations 
are performed by machinery. 

The papier-mache process is more expeditious 
than any other method. By the Hoe machine 
a matrix and four stereotype plates can be made 
in seven minutes; it is possible to cast a plate a 
minute after the matrix is made. Curved plates 
can be made as easily as flat, and as many as 
forty plates can be cast from the same matrix. 



110 STEREOTYPING AND ELECTEOTYPING 



Electrotypes. 



The process 
of electro- 
typing. 



This process has been adopted by all large daily 
newspapers. 

Electrotypes are plates produced by means of 
electricity; they are made from type, woodcuts, 
and engraved plates. The process of causing one 
metal to be deposited on another by galvanic ac- 
tion is not new, but the electrotyping of type, wood- 
cuts, and plates is of comparatively recent date. An 
engraving made by this method appeared in the 
London Journal for April, 1840. In America 
Joseph A. Adams, a wood-engraver of New York, 
produced plates which were used in Mapes's 
Magazine as early as 1841. Before 1855 the art of 
electrotyping was in general use in New York. 

To make an electrotype plate, copper, placed in 
a state of solution, is caused by electric action to 
spread itself over the surface of a mould and there 
be deposited in a sheet. 

A wax mould is first made of the engraved plate, 
cut, or type. To produce this, beeswax is poured 
on a leaden slab and is left to cool, after which 
graphite is brushed evenly over the surface. 

The form of type or the plate is forced into the 
wax by means of a steam-press. This gives a 
mould of the type or plate in the wax. The surplus 
wax is removed with a sharp knife. 



STEREOTYPING AND ELECTBOTYPING 111 

As the mould comes out uneven, it has to be 
built up; this is done by filling the large blank 
spaces and the surfaces between the lines with hot 
wax, so that the deposits of copper may be 
shallow. The mould is then given a coat of 
graphite in the black-leading machine. The 
graphite makes the mould a conductor of electricity. 

After the deposit of this metallic surface, the 
superfluous graphite is washed out by water. Iron 
filings are then sifted on the mould and a weak 
solution of sulphate of copper is stirred in. This 
coating of copper is given to facilitate the plating. 
To make the electrical connection, a piece of copper 
or lead is imbedded in the edge of the sheet of wax. 

The mould is then suspended for one or two 
hours in a bath of sulphate of copper solution. 
By the action of the electric current, the coating 
is increased until it is about .005 of an inch thick. 

The shell of copper is removed from the wax 
and is washed in boiling water. It is brushed on 
the back with a solution of chloride of zinc, and 
sheets of tinfoil are laid over it and melted. 
Enough molten lead is poured on the shell to 
give it the necessary thickness — about one-eighth 
of an inch. An air-blast causes the plate to cool 
and solidify immediately. 



112 STEREOTYPING AND ELECTBOTYPING 

Any defects or indentations on the face of the 
plate are hammered up from the back, and it 
is afterwards passed through machines which 
finish it and give it a bevel on the side. When 
mounted it is ready for the press. A plate to be used 
on a Hoe web-perfecting press, is given a curva- 
ture to fit it to the cyhnder. When red ink is 
used, electrotypes are usually given a coating of 
nickel, to protect the copper from the action 
of the mercury. 

An electrotype plate will stand from five hun- 
dred to six hundred thousand impressions. A 
stereotype plate lasts for only about one hundred 
thousand impressions. Both stereotype and elec- 
trotype plates are now sometimes made as large 
as two pages of a newspaper. 

By hurrying each step of the process, it is possi- 
ble to make an electrotype plate in an hour; but 
for a high grade of work more care is taken, 
and it then requires several hours to produce 
a plate with fine finish. 

Electrotyping is a much cheaper process than 
either half-tone or line work, the price being from 
one to three cents a square inch. Line work costs 
about seven cents, and half-tones from twelve to 
fifteen cents a square inch. 



CHAPTER II 

HALF-TONE AND LINE PLATES 

npHE numerous illustrations which give life and 
-*- add to the value of our books, magazines, 
and newspapers,^ without greatly increasing their 
cost, have been brought into existence by the devel- 
opment of the relatively new art of photo-engrav- 
ing, which by 1880 was beginning to supplant the re- 
producing of woodcuts. Reproductions of photo- 
graphs, wash-drawings, paintings, or of any picture 
or object in which there is a gradation of color, 
are made by the half-tone process. Drawings or 
pictures consisting of simple lines, that is without 
tones of color, such as pen sketches or fac-similes 
of old ^Ti tings, are reproduced by line-plates. 

An illustration printed from a line-plate resem- 
bles a pen and ink drawing; that is, it consists 
of lines in relief. A half-tone has no lines at all : 



iThe illustration of English journals dates back to 1832 when the 
Penny Magazine, a periodical somewhat of the nature of a popularized 
cycloi)edia, was first published ; but it cannot be said that illustrated 
journalism had fairly begun until The Illustrated London News was 
founded in 1842. Gleo^on's Pictorial was started in Boston about 
1850. Frank Leslie's followed in 1854, and Harper's Weekly in 1857. 
The first illustrated daily pai)er in America was The Daily Graphic 
of New York, established in 1873. 

8 (113) 



Half-tones. 



114 EALF-TONE AND LINE PLATES 

it is composed of dots, and has middle tones, 
full tones, and high lights. 

To produce a half-tone, a negative is made of 
the picture by the wet collodion process, with the 
use of a screen, and a copperplate is made of this 
negative. Line-plates are prepared by the same 
process without the use of a screen, and are made 
of zinc. In newspaper work, both half-tone and 
line plates are produced by zinc etching, as copper 
requires too much time. 

If a plain negative of a photograph were printed 
and etched on metal and then mounted the proper 
height and placed on a printing-press, the impres- 
sion taken from it would be entirely black and 
white, the shades being black and the high lights 
white. There would be no relief to the black 
portions, and the white parts would be etched 
entirely away. A printing-plate must have these 
parts broken up in some way, so that the light 
and the dark parts may be given their proper 
values. In the half-tone process, this is accom- 
phshed by the use of a transparent screen, generally 
of glass, which consists of two plates and on which 
have been made fine lines, the lines of one plate 
intersecting those of the other at right angles. This 
screen is placed in the plate-holder, in front of the 



HALF-TONE AND LINE PLATES 115 



negative, and the rays of light passing through it 
break up the parts in such a way as to show the 
gradation of color. When the lines are close to- 
gether the engraving will be finer than when a 
coarse screen is used, but it will be more difficult 
to print. One hundred and thirty or forty lines 
to the inch is the average number. 

As stated above, for newspaper illustration, 
both half-tone and line work are printed on zinc. 
A negative is first made from the photograph Ljne-piates. 
or sketch, and is developed in the dark-room. 
A plate of zinc is sensitized with a solution consist- 
ing of bichromate of ammonium (or potassium), 
distilled water, and albumen. This solution is 
poured several times over the plate. The sensitiz- 
ing is done in the dark-room, and the zinc plate is 
then placed in the printing-frame. The plate is 
laid flat upon the negative and the cross-bars are 
screwed down very tight, to insure perfect contact. 
Exposure to strong fight, either sunlight or electric 
light, from two to eight minutes, then follows ; the 
light passes through the transparent parts and 
prints on the metal. Nothing shows on the plate 
when it is taken out of the printing-frame. It is 
rolled with printer's or lithographic transfer-ink, 
and is laid face upwards in a tray containing enough 



116 HALF-TONE AND LINE PLATES 

water barely to cover its surface. The plate 
is afterwards rubbed very gently with a piece 
of clean absorbent cotton which removes the 
superfluous ink. The print appears in the form 
of black lines against a bright background. The 
ink clings to the parts acted on by the light ; it rubs 
away the parts not acted on and leaves the plain 
metal. After the plate is washed and heated it is 
powdered with dragon's blood, which protects 
the lines of the engraving when the plate is etched 
in the acid bath. In the etching all the parts not 
so protected are eaten away, the lines being left 
in relief. The etching solution is composed of 
nitric acid and water. In ordinary commercial 
work, three or four baths, sometimes more, are 
necessary before the plate acquires the proper 
depth ; for newspaper work the plate is given from 
two to four bites, as time permits. 

The next step is the routing, or drilling. On 
the routing-machine, in those parts where the 
acid did not bite deep enough the plate is still 
further cut away, and large parts which are not 
to show at all are removed. The plate is then 
mounted, or nailed to a block, and is ready for the 
composing-room. In printing from the plate on 
the press, the projecting parts show black and 
the indentations white. 



The films. 



HALF-TONE AND LINE PLATES 117 

The body-work, or background, of an illustra- 
tion is sometimes produced by rubbing the plate, 
before it is etched, through films which are made 
of a preparation of gelatine and which are inked. 
By placing films on parts of the plate to be 
strengthened, and gently rubbing on the back of 
the film, various lines or dots are produced. The 
films are so made as to give different shades of 
color — small dots and fine lines for delicate 
tones, heavy lines and large dots for deeper 
tones. The stipple-work which forms the back- 
ground of colored illustrations is produced in 
this way. 

In printing a half-tone on copper, the plate is 
sensitized in a silver bath instead of a solution of 
bichromate of ammonium. The etching mordant 
is perchloride of iron instead of nitric acid. 

Half-tone and line plates for newspapers are 
made inabout the same way as for books and maga- newspaper 
zines, except that for the former, each step of the 
process is performed with greater rapidity. Daily 
journals have many little devices for facilitating the 
work : they spend less time in taking the negative 
and use an electric fan for drying. For book 
or magazine work, several hours are required to 
make a plate carefully; a newspaper produces a 



work. 



118 HALF-TONE AND LINE PLATES 

plate in an hour. If a fire or some unusual occur- 
rence takes place a little before midnight, a 
sketch artist is sent out, a cut is made, and the 
illustration appears in the two o'clock edition of 
the paper. 

The plates for colored pictures, with which 
many of our newspaper supplements are illus- 
trated, are prepared by about the same process as 
an ordinary line-plate; the main difference con- 
sists in making a separate plate for each color, 
as on the press the paper passes from one cylinder 
to another to receive the various colors. [For 
GoLOR-PRiNTiNG ON THE Press, See page 97.] 

In newspaper work, a line-plate is locked up 
Se'prel^" with the form of type, which is set by the lino- 
from plates, ^ypg ^^^ which is the size of one full page of the 
paper, and is stereotyped with the type. To 
get a clear impression of the cut, in making the 
matrix, an " overlay, " or piece of stiff prepared 
paper, is placed directly over the plate, so as to 
keep it down as tight as possible. 

Matrices are made from half-tones, but in 
order to get better effects, some newspapers 
print directly from the plate itself, as is done in 
fine work. A depression or space is left in the 
matrix and the half-tone is inserted in it; when 



HALF-TONE AND LINE PLATES 119 

the molten lead is poured over the matrix, the 
cut is soldered into the stereotype plate. To 
save wear, half-tones are nickel-plated for color 
work, as nickel is not easily affected by colored inks. 
A plate to be used on a web press is made with a 
curve which fits it to the cylinder. In printing a 
half-tone, a paper or "overlay" is placed be- 
tween the plate and the impression-cylinder, so as 
to bring out the lights and shades that should 
appear in the picture. 



WEITIIS^G MATEKIALS 



(121) 



WKITII^a MATEEIALS 



CHAPTER I 

MATERIALS USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLES 

tpHE chief substances which have been used as 
-*- writing materials are stone, clay, bark, leaves, 
skins of animals, metal, potsherds, wood, linen, 
papyrus, parchment, wax, and paper. 

It is probable that the primitive races first Rocks- 
wrote on rocks with some sharp-pointed instru- poinSd 
ment, to delineate familiar objects or to convey 
information to passers-by. The Eskimo of 
Alaska, at the present day, cut characters upon 
ihe smooth sides of their ivory drill-bows with 
sharp pieces of iron or steel. They thus graphic- 
ally depict their hunting expeditions and various 
social and religious practices. The prairie tribes 
of Indians, also, incise characters upon the shoul- 
der-blades of the buffalo and other large animals, 
when they are on the hunt, to inform members 
of their band of the course of travel. 

When men were able to give fuller expression Tablets of 
to their ideas, instead of making inscriptions on stilus. 
(123) 



124 MATERIALS USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLES 



Wooden tab- 
lets. 



Tablets of 
lead. 



rocks, they wrote on tablets of soft stone with a 
pointed tool, called a stilus, made of iron or 
other metal. The pen used by the early Hebrews 
was probably such an instrument. In some in- 
stances the stilus was pointed with diamonds, as 
mentioned in Jeremiah xvii., 1. 

Wooden tablets were used at an ancient date. 
Sometimes the inscriptions were made upon 
the bare wood; in other cases, the tablets were 
coated with some kind of composition, the 
writing being scratched upon the surface with 
a pointed implement. The Egyptians employed 
tablets covered with a glazed composition, upon 
which they wrote with ink. Wooden tablets con- 
taining the names of the dead have been found 
with mummies. 

Lead w^as employed in very early times. Pliny 
states that the public acts of the most remote nations 
were recorded in leaden books. Tablets of lead have 
been discovered which contain petitions to oracles, 
and in some cases the answers; charms and incan- 
tations were also inscribed on leaves of this metal. 
These leaden plates were often so thin that 
they might easily have been rolled up. For 
literary purposes, lead was employed to some 
extent in the middle ages in Northern Italy. 



3IATEEIALS USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLES 125 

Bronze was a material used in both Greece and 
Rome, on which to engrave laws, treaties, and 
other solemn documents. 

In Babylonia and Assyria, tablets were made of Babylonia 

. , andAssjTia- 

soft clay; after receivmg impressions, they were tablets of 
dried in the sun or baked in ovens. The scribe, 
who held an important position, was always pro- 
vided with slabs of fine plastic clay, sufficiently 
moist to take an impression easily, but also suffi- 
ciently firm to prevent the inscriptions from 
becoming blurred or effaced. The writing, of 
course, was done with the stilus. 

The Greeks and Romans used wooden and ivory Qj-eece and 
tablets covered with a thin layer of wax; the waxen"tab- 
instrument was still the stilus, made of metal, 
bone, or ivor}^ The tablets were sometimes 
fastened together with wire. They were employed 
for memoranda, accounts, school exercises, corre- 
spondence, literary composition, and legal docu- 
ments. The stilus was sharpened at one end for the 
purpose of T^Titing, and was left blunt at the other, 
to make erasures when necessary. Wax tablets 
continued to be used to a limited extent in Europe 
until the fourteenth or fifteenth century. 

In Egypt inscribed potsherds have been found inscribed 
in great numbers. The inscriptions are some- po^^^^^^s- 



126 MATERIALS USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLES 

times scratched with a pointed instrument; gener- 
ally, however, they are written in ink with a reed. 
In Greece this material seems to have been 
used only on rare occasions or from necessity. 
Such inscribed fragments have received the name 
of ostraka, a term which we associate with the 
ostracism practised by the Athenians, in which 
the votes were recorded on pieces of broken ves- 
sels. In Egypt the ostraka were generally receipts 
for taxes or letters or orders to officials. 
Graffiti. Graffiti, or wall-scribblings, abounded in nearly 
all places under Roman domination. They have 
been discovered in the ancient cities of Italy, 
but in the greatest numbers at Pompeii. The 
scribblings and rude drawings are generally 
scratched with a sharp instrument or scrawled 
with red chalk or charcoal, and were evidently 
traced by idle loungers or trifiers; inscriptions 
of a more serious nature were drawn with a 
brush. We find doggerel and amatory verses, 
caricatures, quotations from the poets, idle words, 
names to which opprobrious epithets were attached, 
pasquinades, and satirical remarks; among the 
tracings of a serious import were notices of house- 
hold events, advertisements and announcements 
of games, appeals to the public, prayers, and invo- 



MATERIALS USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLES 127 

cations to the martyrs. These inscriptions dis- 
close the current life of the people, afford material 
for the study of the Roman cursive writing, and are 
often of historical and archeological importance. 

The Egyptians covered with inscriptions the 
stone walls of their buildings, — their palaces, 
temples, monuments, the waUs and ceilings of sub- 
terranean passages, and even the interiors of their 
tombs. The history of the nation was thus writ- 
ten in hieroglyphics, and on stone walls and tablets 
kings recorded their exploits, their campaigns into 
distant lands, their victories, and their triumphant 
returns. 

In the earliest ages of their history the Hebrews, 
in common with other primitive peoples, engraved teriais^o??he 

, ^ 1 . . ±^ ^ J fe Hebrews. 

the record of their important events upon stone; 
they also ^Tote with the stilus on rough tablets of 
wood, earthenware, or bone; at a later period they 
employed the skins of animals. The Law was 
wTitten in golden characters on skins in the form 
of a scroll. Leather is still used by the Jews 
for their synagogue rolls. Parchment was also 
employed by the Hebrews as a writing surface. 

Among other materials used by primitive peo- 
pies to receive writing, besides the skins of animals, ^^^jg^^^g^g r 
the most common were the bark of trees, and *^®®^' 



128 MATERIALS USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLES 

leaves, principally those of the palm. The Latin 
word for bark, liher, came to mean also book. 
Linen cloth was employed as a writing surface by 
the ancient Egyptians, also by the Romans for 
certain rituals in their history. The Ojibwa 
Indians of North America still make records on 
birch-bark, and own scrolls which they say have 
been in their possession for centuries. The Indians 
have also painted on skins of animals, but of 
recent years they have employed muslin and 
canvas as a writing surface. The Oriental traveler, 
Mr. F. Jagor, observed in India and elsewhere the 
use of birch-bark and palm and similar leaves to 
receive writing. The characters are usually in- 
scribed with a finely-pointed instrument of steel 
or other hard substance, after which a composition 
of grease and powdered charcoal is rubbed into 
the indentations. 
The calamus, With ink the writing implement was the calamus, 
or reed, sharpened and split like the pens of the 
present day. The reed pen was employed for 
writing upon papyrus or parchment. This instru- 
ment was made from the tubular stalks of grasses 
growing in marshy lands and from the hollow 
joints of the bamboo. The calamus is the true 
ancient representative of the modern pen. In 



or reed. 



MATERIALS USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLES 129 

Greece and Rome the reeds in common use were 
obtained from Egypt, but persons of wealth often 
wrote with a silver calamus. Some of the ancient 
reed pens are still preserved ; one found in a 
papyrus at Herculaneum is now kept at Naples. 
The natives of Persia and of some neighboring 
countries still employ the reed, as the metal pen 
is not adapted to their mode of writing. The 
Japanese and Chinese use a hair pencil or small 
brush. 

The ink of the ancients was made from the black 

Ancient inks. 

fluid of the cuttle-fish, or of lampblack or char- 
coal and gum. The thick inks were applied with 
a brush; for the reed a thinner ink was made of 
gall-nuts and sulphate of iron. Red and blue inks 
were employed for titles and initial letters. The 
ancient inks were thicker and more durable than 
those of the present day. The writing on the 
ancient Egyptian papyri is legible even now after 
the lapse of several thousand years. 

Gold and silver have both been employed as ^ ^^ ^^ ., 
writing fluids. Manuscripts of purple-stained J^ds"*^^ 
vellum were written in gold, and ordinary white 
velliun was also so inscribed, particularly during 
the reigns of the Garlovingian kings of the ninth 
and tenth centuries. The practice of gold writing 
9 



130 MATERIALS USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLES 

survived until the thirteenth century, after which 
date only a few isolated examples are to be found. 
Silver would produce little effect on a white 
ground; its use as a writing fluid therefore 
ceased with the disuse of stained vellum. 



CHAPTER II 

PAPYRUS 

rPHE Cyperus Papyrus of Linnseus was a plant 

-*- extensively cultivated in ancient times in the piant^^^^*^ 

Delta of Egypt. It is now extinct in Lower Egypt, 

but is foimd in Nubia and Abyssinia. It is said 

to grow also in Western Asia and in Sicily. 

One of its ancient names was P-apu, from which 
the Greek title papyrus was derived. The Greeks 
called it also hyhlos and deltas. Its Hebrew 
name was gome, a word resembling the Coptic 
gom, or ''volume." In modern Arabic its name is 
berdi. In hieroglyphic writing the papyrus plant 
is used as the symbol of Lower Egypt. 

On the ancient Egyptian monuments, the papy- 
rus is represented as a plant about ten feet in 
height. Theophrastus gives the first accurate de- 
scription of it, and says that it grew in shallows 
of about three feet or less, its main root, which lay 
horizontally, being of the thickness of a man's 
wrist and ten cubits in length. From this main 
root, smaller roots extended down into the mud; 
(131) 



132 PAPYRU8 



the stem of the plant rose to the height of 
six feet or more above the water, being triangular 
in form with a tufted head of numerous droop- 
ing spikelets. 

The papyrus plant was used for many pur- 
poses, both useful and ornamental. Of the tufted 
head, garlands were made for the shrines of the 
gods. Its roots were dried for fuel and its pith 
was boiled and eaten. Of the stem, were made 
sandals, boxes, boats, sails, mats, cloth, cords, and 
writing material. In sculptures of the period of 
the fourth dynasty^ workmen are represented in 
the act of building a boat of stalks cut from a 
neighboring plantation of papyrus. Isaiah prob- 
ably refers to boats of this kind when he speaks of 
"vessels of bulrushes upon the waters" (xviii., 2). 

The widespread use of papyrus as an ancient 
^fting^ma-^ writing surface is attested by early writers and by 
numerous documents and sculptures; the material 
was employed in Egypt at a remote period. The 
names of the plant, given above, were applied to 
the writing material, which by the Greeks was called 
also charta. Papyrus rolls are represented in the 
sculptures of Egyptian temples, and numerous 
examples of the rolls themselves are still in exist- 



terial. 



1 From about 3998-3721 b. a 



PAPYRUS 133 



ence. The dry atmosphere of Egypt has been 
pecuHarly favorable to the preservation of these 
documents; in many instances they remain un- 
touched b}^ decay, and are as fresh as when first 
written. 

PHny's account of the manufacture of the writ- 
ing material from papyrus refers to the process tureo/pa- 



foUowed in his time, but it is probable that the 
same general method of treatment had been prac- 
ticed for many centuries. The stem was cut into 
longitudinal strips, those from the centre being, of 
course, the broadest and therefore the most valu- 
able. The strips were laid on a board, side by 
side, until the desired width was obtained; across 
the layer thus formed another layer of shorter 
strips w^as laid at right angles. The two layers 
were soaked, Pliny says, in water of the Nile. 
It is supposed that they were joined either 
by the juice of the plant or by a thin gum. The 
layers were then pressed and dried in the sun. 
Any inequalities in the surface were removed by 
the use of ivory or a smooth shell. Newly-made 
papyrus was white, or brownish white, and flex- 
ible, but the papyri which have been preserved 
until the present day have become of a light or 
dark brown color and so brittle as to break at the 



pyrua paper. 



134 PAPYRUS 



touch. The sheets varied from four or five inches 
to nearly eighteen inches in width; the usual width 
was about eight inches. Any required length 
could be obtained by fastening a number of sheets 
together, end to end. The sheets were put together 
in the order of their quality, the best sheet on the 
outside of the roll and the worst sheets in the centre. 
They were thus arranged, not for the purpose of 
concealing the bad material, but that the strongest 
sheets should be placed where there was most wear 
and tear. Besides, if the entire roll should not be 
needed, the poorest sheets could be better spared 
and easily cut off. The papyrus roll, as a rule, 
was written on one side only, and was fastened 
to a wooden rod or roller, around which it was 
wound. 
Papyrus The rolls were of various lengths. A fairly 

full copy of the ritual of the dead, the whole or 
a part of which was buried with every person of 
consequence from the eighteenth dynasty^ to the 
Roman period, required a roll fifteen inches wide 
and from eighty to ninety feet long. The Harris 
papyrus, in the British Museum, is the longest 
known, having a length of one hundred and thirty- 
three feet. The most ancient of the papyri now ex- 

1 From about 1587-1328 B. o. 



rolls 




SELECTION' FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD— TIKIX (HIEROGLYPHIC) 

PAPYRUS. [From Davis. By permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons.] 



PAPYRUS 136 



tant is the Prisse papyrus, so called from the name 
of its former owner, and is preserved at Paris. It 
is supposed to date from about 2400 b. c, or 
earher, and contains a work composed during the 
reign of a king of the fifth dynasty.^ The pap3rri 
of Egypt have usually been found in tombs, 
or in the hands, or wrapped with the bodies, of 
mimimies. Besides the ritual of the dead, which 
is most frequently the subject, and religious rolls, 
there are civil and literary documents, in the 
hieratic style of writing, and the demotic or 
enchorial papyri, relating generally to sales of 
property. 

The discovery of papyri containing works of 

Discoveries of 

classical Greek authors, begun about the middle papyri. 
of the nineteenth century, has resulted in a great 
gain to literature. There were brought to light 
four or five quite complete orations of Hyperides, 
an orator who before had been known only by 
name. Additions were made to the works of 
Euripides and Alcman, and early manuscripts 
were found of parts of Homer, Plato, Thucydides, 
Demosthenes, and Iso crates. In the great dis- 
covery in 1891, of more than one hundred and sixty 
ancient mummies in a subterranean passage at 



1 From about 3721-3503 b. c. 



136 PAPYRUS 

Deir el Bahari, near Thebes, many Egyptian 
papyri were given to the world. These contained 
the usual ritual passages and extracts from the 
Book of the Dead. In the same year the British 
Museum obtained from Egypt papyrus rolls con- 
taining almost the whole of a lost work of Aristotle 
on the Constitution of Athens. There were four 
of these roUs, the longest seven feet, the shortest 
three feet in length. They date from about the 
end of the first centiu-y a. d. 

It has been thought that the early Chaldeans 
had a knowledge of papyrus paper, and either 
made it themselves or had it brought from Egypt, 
but if they possessed papyrus writings they have 
entirely disappeared. Egypt was the true home 
of this plant, where paper was manufactured from 
it at least 2000 years B.C. It was for a long time an 
article of export and in great demand. It is sup- 
posed that the manufacture of papyrus in Egypt 
ceased about the middle of the tenth century. 
Papyrus was used among the early Greeks but it 
Greece^nd ^^^ ^^^ come into general use until after the time of 
Italy. Alexander the Great, when it was exported from the 

ports of Egypt. It is not known when papyrus was 
first used in Italy, but under the Empire there was 
a great demand for it. It was then employed not 



PAPYRUS 137 



only for making books, but for domestic purposes, 
correspondence, and legal documents. It is said 
that during the reign of Tiberius the failure of 
the pap3Tus crop almost caused a riot. Although 
the plant was cultivated in Italy, the staple was 
doubtless imported from Alexandria. It is thought 
by some that pap3rrus paper was never manufac- 
tured from the native plant anywhere except in 
Egypt. 

Papyrus continued to be employed to some ex- 
tent as a -^Titing material in Europe until the tenth 
century; by the twelfth century it had entirely 
disappeared. Its use for books ceased sooner than 
for documents. During the later period of its use 
in book-making, it was no longer made in rolls 
but was cut into square pages and bound like a 
modern book. To the square form of book, the 
name codex was given. [See Godex, page 183.|] 



CHAPTER III 

PARCHMENT AND VELLUM 

rPHE skins of animals were employed as a writing 
-*- surface at a very early period. The word parch- 
ment is derived from Pergamum, the name of a 
city in Mysia, where it is said the material was first 
used. The story as told by Pliny is that Eumenes 
II., King of Pergamum (b. c. 197-159?), wishing 
his library to rival that of the Pharaohs at 
Alexandria, was forced to develop the manufac- 
ture of parchment in consequence of the prohi- 
bition of the exportation of papyrus from Egypt 
through the jealousy of Ptolemy Epiphanes. 
Papyrus was used as a writing surface in Italy 
as late as the tenth century, but parchment was 
also employed. From the tenth century until the 
fourteenth, when paper became generally known, 
parchment was the ordinary writing material. 
It was the influence of the Christian Church that 
eventually caused vellum to supersede papyrus as a 
writing surface. Because of its durability, it was 
used for new volumes, also to replace damaged 
(138) 



PARCH31ENT AND VELLUM 339 

works on papyrus. When Contanstine desired 
copies of the Scriptures for his new churches, he or- 
dered the manuscripts to be inscribed on vellum. 

During the middle ages, vellum dyed purple, or 
other brilliant color, was used for valuable manu- 
scripts, such as the Gospels, the Psalter, and im- 
portant Codices. The entire surface of leaves of 
this material was sometimes gilded, but this mode 
of decoration must have proved too expensive 
to be very generally employed. 

Parchment ^ is skin so prepared that both sides Kin^g of 

1 •. , r\ ^^ ^ i • parchment. 

can be written upon. Ordmary parchment is 
made chiefly from sheepskin and sometimes from 
those of the goat. Fine parchment, or vellum, is 
prepared from the skins of calves, kids, and dead- 
born lambs, i^ A coarse variety used for drumheads, 
tambourines, etc., is made from the skins of goats, 
calves, and wolves; for battledores the skins of 
asses are employed; for bookbinders' use parch- 
ment is sometimes manufactured from pigskin. 
Sheepskins are often split so as to produce two 
sheets of parchment. The Eskimos make this 



1 In modern times the term parchment has given place to that of 
vellum. The true vellum is made from calf-skin or from the skins of 
kids or dead -born lambs, but the name is now applied to a medieval 
skin book of any kind. The use of tlie word parchment is generally 
restricted to sheepskin or a skin on which law deeds or other 
formal writings are engrossed. 



140 



PARCHMENT AND VELLUM 



Preparation 
of the skins. 



Vegetable 
parchment. 



material from the entrails of seals, and manufac- 
ture from it blankets and clothing. The skin of 
the fur-seal is sometimes converted into parch- 
ment, which is used for making cases for holding 
valuable papers or other articles. 

With some slight differences, all the skins are pre- 
pared in the same way. They are first soaked in 
water and then in milk of lime for the purpose of re- 
moving the hair. They are shaved, washed, and gone 
over with a sharp knife to remove superfluous parts. 
The skins are then stretched on a stout wooden 
frame, called a herse, and dried in the air. The 
finer varieties are dusted with chalk and rubbed 
with pumice-stone. Parchment intended for the 
use of bookbinders is planed, in order to produce a 
rough surface capable of being dyed or written 
upon. 

Vegetable parchment, or parchment paper, is 
made by dipping ordinary unsized paper for a few 
seconds in dilute sulphuric acid and immediately 
removing all traces of the acid. Paper thus acted 
upon undergoes a remarkable change : it becomes 
translucent, horny, and parchment-like, and ac- 
quires about five times the strength of ordinary 
paper. It is impervious to water, but becomes soft 
and flaccid when dipped into it; it is not affected 



PARCH3IENT AND VELLmr 141 

by boiling water. The same effect is produced 
by subjecting paper to a solution of chloride of 
zinc. 

Stout varieties of vegetable parchment have been 
employed for book-covers and as a writing surface 
for deeds; its chief use, however, is for covers of 
vessels, such as preserve-jars and bottles. Thin 
sheets of it are employed for tracing plans and 
charts. 

Parchment for printing purposes is imported 
into the United States from Europe and is sold 
in rolls of sixty skins. It is made in Hanover, at 
Augsburg, Breslau, Dantzic, and Nuremberg, and 
in Holland, England, and France. 



T 



Paper made 



CHAPTER IV 

PAPER 

^HE earliest material which resembled the paper 
of the present day was made from the Egyp- 
tian papyrus. From the Egyptian word P-apu 
were derived the Greek and Latin terms papyrus, 
and from these all similar writing material has 
been named. 

The Chinese seem to have had a knowledge of 
nes?^^^^ the art of making paper many centuries before 
the material was introduced into Western Asia and 
Europe. At a very remote period they made paper 
of sprouts of bamboo, of Chinese grass, and of the 
bast of a special mulberry-tree. Fang Mi-Chih, 
author of an encyclopedia, states that at first 
the Chinese wrote on bamboo boards; but that 
for a long time, both before and after the 
Christian era, the usual writing material was 
paper made of silk waste. The manufacture of 
paper from fibrous matter and from the wool 
of the cotton-plant, reduced to a pulp, has 
been traced back by some writers to the second 
century b. c. The invention of paper made of 
(142) 



PAPER 143 



vegetable fibre is attributed to the statesman 
Ts 'ai Lun. It is said that in 105 a. d. he had 
succeeded in making paper of bark, of hemp, of 
rags, and of old fish-nets. 

By the Chinese the art was made known to 
the Hindus, the Persians, and the Arabs. A Jhe^^Sians, 
paper manufactory was established at Samarkand Imbs.^ 
in the latter part of the sixth or early in the sev- 
enth century of the Christian era. The Arabs 
conquered this city in 704 a. d., and there learned 
the use of the material. From this time paper 
became available for the rest of the world. At 
Bagdad its manufacture was carried on from 
about 795 a. d. until the fifteenth century. The 
art was practised also in Damascus, Egypt, and 
the North of Africa. From the large quantities 
made at Damascus, paper received the name of 
charta Damascena, a term by which it was generally 
known in Europe in the middle ages; the titles 
charta and papyrus were transferred to it from the 
Egyptian writing material ; cotton paper was called 
also during the middle ages charta hombycina, 
gossypina, cuttunea, xylina, Damascena, and serica. 

Paper was probably introduced into Greece 

^ 1^ J The use of 

through trade with Asia, and thence carried to paper in 

° ' Europe- 

other countries in Europe. It seems not to have Greece. 



144 PAPER 

been used very extensively in Greece before the 
middle of the thirteenth century. 

The first paper manufactured in Europe was 
Germany, ' made by the Moors in Spain. In 1154 there was 

and France. . . „ . 

a paper-mill at Jativa ; factories were also estab- 
lished at Valencia and Toledo. The Arabs intro- 
duced paper-making into Sicily; from Sicily it 
passed over into Italy, where there is evidence, in 
the city of Genoa, of a trade in this material as early 
as 1235. In Germany the first factories seem to 
have been established between Cologne and Mainz 
towards the end of the thirteenth century, and 
in Mainz itself about the year 1320. Mills were 
started also at Nuremberg, Ratisbon, and Augsburg. 
Paper was introduced from Spain into France, 
where it is said to have been manufactured in the 
^ district of Herault as early as 1189. The Nether- 
lands and England first obtained their supply 
from France and Burgundy. It is beheved 
that the first paper-maker in England was a per- 
son named Tate, who is said to have had a mill 
in operation in Hertford early in the sixteenth 
century. Very little is known of the manufac- 
ture of the material in that country, however, 
until about the middle of the sixteenth century, 
when there was a paper-mill at Dartford 



tuOeoHt i^M p>]^ ciiutatt ett^lj)m£^ uln mm 

ncfttmfia mieji^ftrmif quaiiio^atfe^imum 

flmlieiDtfiilJcr cottfefe^ fofiim^^iiOT® ago 

to illfl nmif^fifeiif fmpfina mt|flmc1nmi0: 
l^aiMfirt oeflimfta tmafiti ^tjcflf mm 

.-ifrtaiaf amf liiita cmrf icfu mafrrmi6»^t^(b 
tip maftw* mi6^'mana dcopijf /ittmriattms- 

apuliiftamtm qimn mugtbaf f inixtmatii 

ctpiiio.«tormaftrma.iK^^iHklioiaam|nf 

cammtopxfluem fua^l^ottmtow 
ctma otmaamfiiinafefimf ;4if flmfihmmf 
toipnim &mt.j>iai) .^a^ aiitf pofilu cmf 
arm) pktmjfm mifmt (pongtam plena art^) 

I'AltT OF A PAGE FROM A MANUSCRIPT MISSAL WRITTEN IN GER- 
MANY — ABOUT THE PERIOD OF GUTENBERG'S FIRST BIBLE. 

[From Humphreys.] 



PAPER 145 

In America paper was first manufactured by 

^ ^ America. 

William Bradford, the printer, in 1690, at Ger- 
manto\vn, near Philadelphia. Having discovered 
a paper-maker among the immigrants to the 
colony, with the help of some of his neighbors, 
he started a paper-factory, which was operated 
by the Rittenhouse family for several generations. 

The paper first manufactured in Europe was 
made from the cotton-plant; rags were afterwards 
mixed with the raw material or substituted for it. 

Many early Arabic manuscripts on paper, dating 
from the ninth century, are still in existence. maSuscr^^ 
Am6ng the earliest dated documents is the Ghartbu °^ ^^'^^'^' 
'l-Hadith, written in the year 866 a. d. This is a 
treatise on the rare and curious words found in 
the sayings of Mohammed and his companions, 
and is preserved in the University Library of 
Leyden. The oldest dated Arabic manuscript on 
paper in the British Museum is of the year 960, 
and is a treatise by an Arabian physician on the 
nourishment of the different members of the 
body. In the Bodleian Library (Oxford), is 
preserved a manuscript of a grammatical work 
of 974. As this was written at Samarkand, the 
paper was probably made at that seat of early 
Arab manufacture. 

lO 



146 



PAPER 



Of the documents on cotton paper written in 

Early docu- ^ ^ 

™eiitsoiipa- Europe, the oldest is the deed of King Roger of 
in Europe. gjcily^ of the year 1102; other deeds of SiciHan 
kings of the twelfth century are recorded. The 
oldest known imperial deed on paper is a charter 
of Frederick II. to the nuns of Goess in Styria, 
of the year 1228, now kept at Vienna. This 
emperor, however, in 1231, forbade the use of 
paper for official documents, which he desired 
inscribed on vellum. The British Museum pos- 
sesses astronomical treatises written on paper, 
in an Italian hand of the first half of the 
thirteenth century. Examples of Spanish-made 
paper are the letters addressed from Castile to 
Edward I. of England, in 1279 and subsequent 
years. 



Manufacture 
of paper- 
first paper- 
machines. 



At first, paper, both ancient and modern, 
was made entirely by hand. In 1799 a paper- 
machine was invented by Louis Robert, a 
clerk employed by the Messrs. Didot of 
the celebrated Essonnes mills near Paris, and 
this caused a great development of the in- 
dustry. The manufacture was introduced into 
England, through the agency of the Messrs. 
Fourdrinier, and the first paper-machine in that 



H onferes Ttlfidicl: pcrfe 
H cmt^inaitnptvpc-flatiicnort^ 
ft N odcj. & profcflis (uabus &facm 
\ I titer locofi rtvuncta kberi 
^ I utn prole mairoTusa: tins 
R tte clcos fn-uis a<iprccaa 

V irtutt^funcros morcpatruirvcmcei 
L idis t-ctnvctx? carmine tibi IS 

I^T roumcj- et:atici>ifcn ^alir^ 
■p roaemcm ucncns canctmjs ^ 
,^ H V Carnjir«n»> hbw t^t>«vt>fc? ccuinqpus 

[epoDON ADMtClHATt 

Bi5 tiburnis inter aUariauim 
A tniq^rpropucTjactm 
Patams dnvne c/fens pcrtculmtv 
ubirr meccnas tuo 
' Q md nos <|iubus tsr mta fupcrfbtc 
I ocuti da fi contta. grauw 
^v trumnrtulltptrfeauemttrotJMnn 
' H cm dulce ni-tecttm ftttuil 
A nbuncUbofcmtnetttffUttin<leoct 
O ucm'fcrrc;ncYttf>^Uc|r iux(» 

V eretiimr&tr ttcii^craJfMwputoQ!-*^ 



A PAGE FROM THE "ODES OF HORACE," AN ITALIAN MANU- 
SCRIPT OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. [From Humphreys.] 



# 



PAPER 147 



country was erected in 1804, at Frogmoor Mill, 
near Boxmoor, Herts. Henry and Sealy Fourd- 
rinier, of London, bought the EngHsh patents, and 
so perfected the machine that it has since been 
given the name of Fourdrinier. In America the 
first steam paper-mill was started at Pittsburg, 
in 1816. The first cylinder machine for the 
manufacture of paper was designed by Thomas 
Gilpin, and was employed by him, in 1817, in 
his mills on the Brandy wine. Since 1820 paper 
made by machinery has supplanted hand-made 
paper, except fine grades used for special pur- 
poses. 

The staples, or the materials, from which writ- 
ing and printing papers are made are wood-pulp, 
rags, and esparto.^ The staple of wrapping-paper 
is old ropes and jute. The finest writing and 
printing-papers, whether made by hand or ma- 
chinery, are manufactured from linen and cotton 
rags. A great part of paper-making material 
is a by-product obtained from the refuse of other 
manufactures, such as waste paper, rags, old rope, 
old bagging, etc. At the present day paper is put 
to so many uses that rags cannot be procured in 



Paper staples. 



1 Esparto is the name of two or three species of grass found in 
Southern Europe and Northern Africa. 



148 



PAPER 



Wood-pulp 
and wood- 
fibre. 



Preparation 
of tbe stock. 



sufficient quantities, hence the greater amount of 
even white paper is now made from wood-fibre. 
Paper can be made of ahnost any vegetable fibre, 
but those fibres are strongest which are most 
completely interlaced. The woods generally used 
are the poplar, pine, spruce, and hemlock. 

The idea of making paper from wood-pulp 
arose in the early part of the nineteenth century. 
Various patents were granted, but it was not until 
about 1855 that wood began to take the place of 
rags for book and newspaper work. A distinction 
must be made between wood-pulp and wood-fibre : 
the pulp is produced by mechanical means, or by 
grinding; the fibre by chemical treatment, or by 
a process which separates from the wood all 
resinous and gummy substances, and leaves what 
is called cellulose, or fibre divested of all incrust- 
ing matter. Wood-pulp generally receives an 
admixture of wood-fibre to give it strength. 

The manufacture of paper really begins with 
the first step required to prepare the stock. In 
making wood-pulp, the bark and knots are first 
separated from the wood. The wood is then cut into 
convenient lengths and put into a machine termed 
a wood-pulp grinder, which tears off the fibres. 
To produce wood, or chemical, fibre, the wood is cut 



PAPER 149 

into chips, dusted, and then boiled in an alkahne 
or acid solution in a vessel known as a digester. 
The chemicals separate the gummy or resinous 
substances from the fibre which, when washed 
and bleached, is almost pure cellulose. It is soft 
and of considerable strength. 

Esparto, or Spanish grass, is cleaned and sorted 
by hand, and is afterwards boiled in an alkaline 
solution. Jute, hemp, and waste paper are all 
treated in about the same way, being boiled in 
alkaline solutions. Cotton and linen rags are 
passed first through threshers, then through cut- 
ters, and are afterwards boiled in a solution of 
caustic soda. 

After the preparation of the staple, the making 
of it into pulp and the manufacture of the pulp 
into paper are about the same whether rags or other 
varieties of stock are employed. The process of 
the preparation of the pulp, whether for machine 
or for hand-made paper is substantially the same, 
but in making paper by machinery each operation 
is performed on a larger scale. 

In making paper by machinery, the rags are first paper-mak- 
put into a thresher or dusting-machine. After they cWnery!"^" 
have passed through this, women sort them by hand, 
and remove all extraneous substances, such as 



150 PAPER 

buttons, hooks and eyes, bone, india-rubber, 
leather, and pieces of metal, at the same time loos- 
ening all hems and knots. The rags are then cut 
into small pieces, either by hand or machinery; 
for the common qualities of paper, machine- 
cutting is used. When the rags are cut by hand, 
the sorter stands at a long table, to which scythe- 
blades are attached; the back of the blade is 
towards the sorter, who draws the cloth against the 
edge. The rags are again dusted and sent to open- 
ings in the floor of the room, underneath which 
are brought the mouths of large boilers called 
rotaries. The boilers contain a solution of soda 
ash, caustic soda, or lime in water. The mouths 
of the rotaries are closed, steam is introduced, 
and the rags are boiled under pressure for several 
hours; by this treatment all fatty, glutinous, or 
coloring substances are separated from the 
pure fibre. Afterwards, the rags are drained 
and taken to the washing-and-beating engines. 
They are sometimes washed in one engine and 
beaten in another, sometimes both operations are 
performed in the same machine. This engine is 
an oblong shallow tub or vat. The rags are placed 
in it, with a sufficient quantity of water, and are 
brought by power under the action of two sets of 



PAPER 151 



knives, by which they are subdivided. The water in 
the washing cyhnders is constantly changing, thus 
affording a continual supply of fresh water and 
the carrying off of the dirty fluid. The rags are 
thus treated from three to five hours, at the end 
of which time they are sufficiently cleansed. They 
are now known as half-stuff. 

The next step is bleaching. A solution of chlor- 
ide of lime and some sulphuric acid are added to 
the half-stuff, which is emptied into a chest or 
drainer. Here the bleaching is finished. The 
pulp is then washed to free it from the chemical 
products adhering to it, and for this purpose it 
is again put into the engine or tub, the roller with 
knives being raised to avoid cutting the fibre. The 
stock is now beaten to the desired fineness and 
sent to the stuff-chest. This completes the prepa- 
ration of the pulp. 

From the stuff-chest the pulp is pumped into 
a regulating-box, or supply-box. The stuff is sent 
to the Fourdrinier machine through a pipe con- 
taining a rapidly-flowing stream of water. After 
passing through the preliminary parts of the 
machine, the pulp is deposited upon a wire-cloth, 
which is a huge belt, having both a forward 
and a lateral motion. The pulp is laid upon this 



152 PAPER 



belt evenly, and is still in a liquid condition; the 
water oozes out through the bottom into a de- 
pression below. The constant vibration of the 
wire-cloth, by means of a shake attachment, throws 
some of the fibres across the machine, while the 
motion or travel of the belt causes the lay of the 
fibre in the other direction. Endless rubber-bands, 
called deckles, extend on each side on top of the 
wire; these prevent the pulp from spreading be- 
yond the edges of the wire, and also determine the 
width of the paper. The deckles continue about 
two-thirds of the distance of the run of the 
belt; by that time the paper is formed, but is 
not sufficiently compact. A cylindrical frame 
covered with wire-cloth, known as the dandy- 
roll, passes over the paper and presses the fibres 
more closely together. Upon the dandy-roll are 
frequently placed letters, monograms, or other 
signs, which may be seen in the finished paper when 
held up to the light. To produce these marks 
in the paper, some of the wires are made to pro- 
ject a little more than usual, or other wires are 
fastened over them, the paper thereby being 
made thinner in such places. These letters or 
signs are produced also by depressing the wires 
where a mark is desired, thus causing the paper 
in those places to be thicker. 



Driers. 



PAPER 153 

The web then passes over the suction-boxes, and 
just as it leaves the wire-cloth it passes under the 
couch-rolls, after which moisture is expelled by 
two sets of rollers. The remaining moisture is 
driven out by heat. So far, no heat has been 
employed. 

The paper is now sent to the driers, a series of 
iron cylinders of large diameter, heated by steam. 
Accompanied by a belt of duck, it passes over 
and under the cylinders, becoming drier and more 
solid as it approaches the end of the machine. 
The web then passes into a tub of animal sizing. 
If the paper is to be " loft-dried,^' it is cut into 
sheets and taken to the loft, where it is hung on 
poles. The cheaper varieties remain there two 
days, the finer grades a week. ^' Machine-dried " 
paper passes from the size-tub into a mechanical 
drier, without being cut into sheets. 

The Fourdrinier machine, above described, has ^^ ^ , . 

' ' TheFourdri- 

been improved in all its details, but in theory its Jhin?^' 
construction is about the same as when invented 
by Robert. This machine was first employed in 
the United States about 1827 at Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts. 

On the Cylinder machine no lateral motion is ^. ,. , 

-' The Cylinder 

given to the wire-cloth; the paper therefore felts i^achine. 



154 



PAPER 



Calenders. 



Suj)ercalen- 
ders. 



Sizing. 



Loading. 



in but one direction. Paper made on the Cylinder 
machine is stronger in the direction of its length 
than that made by the Fourdrinier, but is weaker 
in its breadth. This machine is used in the 
United States for the manufacture of hanging 
papers, wrapping papers, and straw and binders' 
boards. 

To receive a finish, all papers pass through a 
"stack'' of calenders, which consists of a series of 
polished iron rollers, mounted one above the other. 
Paper which goes but once through the calenders is 
given the name of " machine-finish.'! Loft-dried 
paper is calendered in single sheets ; machine- 
dried in the roll. 

To supercalender paper, it is passed between a 
series of rollers called supercalenders ; some of 
these are made of chilled iron, others of sheets of 
paper or of compressed disks of cotton. 

Sizing is given to paper for the purpose of re- 
moving its porous and absorbent character, so that 
when written upon the ink will not spread. Vege- 
table sizing is put into the engines; animal sizing 
is given on the machine, by passing the web 
through a trough containing a solution of gelatine. 

To fill up the pores or interstices, paper is 
loaded with some other substance. This not only 




STACK OF 02-INCH SUPERCALENDERS— FRONT VIEW, 



PAPER 155 

gives the paper a finer surface but also makes 
it heavier. KaoHn or china clay is the load- 
ing material for ordinary paper; for the finer 
grades, sulphate of lime or pearl hardening is used. 
The clay is made into a thin cream and is 
put into the pulp while the latter is in the 
beating-engine. 

When paper first comes from the machine, lit- 

. . . - Surface-coat- 

tle ridges or hollows are found on its surface, re- in&. 
sembling those on the rind of an orange. To 
make the paper smoother, it is surface-coated 
with some white substance, and the most dehcate 
half-tones can then be printed upon it. In sur- 
faced papers the mixture is applied by brushes, 
and the paper is calendered by steel rollers to the 
degree of finish desired. The oftener the paper 
passes through the rollers, the higher will be the 
finish. Some papers are brushed to a finish in- 
stead of being put through the rollers. 

It is not possible to make from the raw materials 
absolutely white paper, as the web always inclines 
either to blue or yellow. Paper is therefore 
shaded slightly towards a buff or bluish tint, shading. 
This is generally accomplished by putting a color- 
ing substance, which dissolves very slowly, into 
the pulp in the engine. 



156 



PAPER 



Paper-mak- 
ing by hand. 



Wove paper. 



Laid paper. 



As has been stated above, the preparation of the 
pulp, whether for hand- or machine-made paper, 
is substantially the same. The old stamps or 
beaters have been superseded by the Hollander 
or beating-engine which is still in use. In making 
paper by hand, the pulp is carried to the working- 
vat, a vessel either of wood or stone, about five feet 
square and four feet deep, with a flaring top. In the 
vat the pulp is mixed with water and is heated by 
means of a steam-pipe. The mould for making 
the paper is a wooden frame, with bars about an 
inch and a half apart, flush with one edge of the 
frame. Parallel wires, about fifteen or twenty to 
the inch, are laid upon these bars, lengthwise of 
the frame. A movable frame, called a deckle, fits 
upon the mould, the two forming a shallow tray, 
with a wire bottom like a sieve. Paper made in 
such a mould is known as ''wove" paper. When 
small wires placed close together, with coarser 
wires running across them at equidistant intervals, 
form the bottom of the mould, in place of the 
wire-cloth used as the bottom for wove paper, 
the paper made in such a mould takes the im- 
pression of all these wires. It is then given the 
name of ''laid" paper. 

The mould or wire-frame on which the pulp is. 



PAPER 157 



formed is raised where the water-mark, or trade- 
mark, is desired. The sheet in that part is The water- 
mark, 
thereby made thinner than in other places, and 

the design remains impressed in each sheet. 

The workman dips the mould into the vat con- 
taining the fluid pulp, and takes up a sufficient 
quantity to form a sheet of paper. Great dex- 
terity is needed to make a perfect sheet, and 
to follow this with other perfect sheets, all of 
even weight; this depends on the skill of eye and 
hand acquired by experience. The vatman gives 
the mould an oscillating motion, to cause the 
intermixture of the fibres necessary to secure 
uniformity of texture. Gradually the water 
drains through, the pulp solidifies and assumes a 
peculiar shiny appearance, which indicates the 
completion of the first step of the process. The 
deckle is then taken off, and the mould is sent to 
a workman known as the " coucher,'! who deposits 
the sheet upon a piece of felt. Another piece 
of felt is placed upon the paper, and this process 
is continued until the pile contains six or eight 
quires. The pile is then subjected to great pres- 
sure. A workman known as the ''layer" separates 
the pieces of felt and the paper. The sheets are 
again pressed to remove, so far as possible, the felt- 



158 PAPER 



marks and the moisture, and are then hung in a 
loft to dry. When dry, the paper is sized. 
Sizing is made of some material containing a great 
deal of gelatine, such as sheeps' feet or pieces of 
skin cut off by curriers before the hides are 
tanned. These materials are boiled to a jelly 
and strained, and a small quantity of alum 
is added. The sheets are spread out in a tub 
containing the sizing diluted with water. Care 
is taken that the sheets shall be equally moistened. 
After sizing, the paper is again pressed and slowly 
dried. Women take out the knots and im- 
perfections with small knives, and separate the 
perfect from the imperfect sheets. After being 
again pressed, the paper is finished and counted 
into reams. These reams when pressed and tied 
up are ready to be sent to the warehouse. There 
is but one mill in the United States which pro- 
duces hand-made paper, that of the L. L. Brown 
Paper Company at Adams, Massachusetts. In the 
vat-mills of Europe, after the preparation of the 
pulp by machinery, paper is made by hand in 
about the same way as in this country. In some 
towns the same process has been employed for sev- 
eral centuries. In a number of the ancient mills at 
Amalfi, Italy, the rags are still beaten by hammers. 



PAPEE 159 



Deckle-edge is the name given to papers which 
are rough on the outer edges. In making paper Deckie-edged 

papers. 

by hand, the pulp is shaken in a sieve, and the 
sides therefore are uneven. When paper first 
issues from the machine, it is rough on the outer 
edges, next to the deckles, and is afterwards 
trimmed. Deckle-edged machine paper, however, 
can be made in narrow strips of any desired width. 
This is done by putting in a number of deckle- 
straps on the wire-cloth, so as to give the true 
deckle. The edge thus formed is more feathery 
than that of regular hand-made paper; it occurs 
on two sides instead of four. 

Paper may be divided into four general classes : 
Printing-paper (book and newspaper). Writing- papeT^^ 
paper. Wrapping- or Packing-paper, and special or 
miscellaneous papers. 

Machine-finish. — A paper with an unglazed sur- 

^ ^ ^ Printing- 

face, having passed but once through the calen- papers. 

ders. 

Wove. — A paper which receives no other impres- 
sion than that made by the weave of the wire-cloth 
and the dandy-roll. 

Laid. — When made by hand, a paper which 
takes the impression of both the small and the 



160 PAPER 

coarse wires which form the bottom of the 
mould. In machine-made paper, the equidistant 
parallel lines are produced by a series of wires 
which pass around the exterior of the dandy-roll. 

Calendered. — A paper which receives a surface 
by being passed through a series of polished iron 
rollers, known as calenders. This operation makes 
the paper even and also gives it a gloss. 

Supercalendered. — A paper which receives a 
still higher finish by being subjected to the action 
of supercalenders, which are a series of rollers, 
some made of chilled iron, others of sheets of paper 
or of compressed disks of cotton. 

Coated. — A paper which has received a coating 
of a white substance, such as china clay, or gyp- 
sum, sulphate of barytes, etc. 

Coated and supercalendered papers are used 
for first-class magazines and for illustrated books, 
as they take the impression of a plate better than 
many other papers. 

Enameled papers are coated with a colored 
substance which adds both to their weight and 
thickness. They are used for covers. 

Deckle-edged papers are rough on the outer 
edges. They are made both by hand and 
machinery. 



PAFEE 161 



Plate paper. — Paper which has passed between 
highly pohshed metal plates or heavy rollers 
that give a powerful pressure. Plate paper is a 
high grade of book stock, and has the same finish 
on both sides. It takes well the impression of 
printer's ink, and receives the most delicate lines 
of half-tones. 

Copperplate paper is unsized paper, unfinished 
on one side and calendered on the other. 

Writing-paper has a smooth surface, as it is 
made with a sizing or glue. Without the sizing, ^?s!^°^'^*' 
the ink would penetrate the paper and render each 
line of the writing too thick. It sometimes has the 
same name, but not always the same size, as print- 
ing-papers. 

Among writing papers are: 

Bond. — A fine stock of paper, usually uncalen- 
dered and very strong. 

Linen. — A paper made from the same stock as 
bond, but laid and usually of a rougher finish. 

Ledger. — The finest qualities of writing-paper 
large in size. Ledger-paper is very strong and 
has good erasing qualities. 

The fine varieties of writing-papers are, of 
course, made of linen rags. 
II 



162 PAPER 

Some of the special papers are used just as they 
come from the mill; others are prepared for spe- 
cial purposes by manufacturers known as con- 
convertS^ verters. These products may be divided into 
papers. special papers and converted papers. Among 

special papers may be mentioned blotting, copying, 
India, Japan, manifold, parchment, rice, sand, 
safety, silver, sponge, and tracing paper; among 
converted papers are carbolic acid, carbon, emery, 
glass, gold or gilt, oiled, photographic, satin, sil- 
ver, and test paper. Coated paper, safety paper, 
and tracing paper are sometimes subjected to 
treatment by converters. 



CHAPTER V 

PENS AND LEAD-PENCILS 

rpHE quills of geese and crows were probably 
-*- employed as writing instruments as early 
as the first century a. d. Quills are obtained 
principally from the wings of the goose, although 
the wing-feathers of the swan and some other 
birds are used. During the middle ages the quill 
was the T\Titing implement universally employed, 
and it continued to be the favorite instrument 
until the introduction of the steel pen in the 
nineteenth century. The best quills were prepared 
in Russia and Holland. Writers sometimes made 
their own pens from prepared quills, but the art 
was a very difficult one to acquire. To prepare 
quills, they are sorted, clarified in hot sand, and di- 
vested of the outer skin; they are then dipped into 
boihng alima water or a boiling solution of diluted 
nitric acid, which gives the necessary degree of 
hardness . Some writers still prefer quills, and these 
articles can be obtained from the large stationers. 
(163) 



Quill pens. 



164 



PENS AND LEAD-PENCILS 



Experiments 
with other 
materials. 



Metal pens. 



In order to furnish an instrument more dur- 
able than the quill, experiments were made with 
horn, tortoise-shell, glass, steel, silver, and gold, 
resulting in the adoption of steel as the most satis- 
factory substance. The glass pen was merely a 
ground stick. Horn and shell softened under the 
action of the ink, and silver pens, although thought 
to be a success, were finally abandoned because 
of a failure to temper them properly and their 
liability to wear at the point. Quills were also 
pointed with metal, and pens of horn and tor- 
toise-shell sometimes had small pieces of hard 
gems embedded in them, or bits of gold attached 
to the points; such pens, however, were too 
costly to become articles of common use. 

Metal pens were evidently used to some ex- 
tent by the ancient Romans. A bronze pen, nibbed 
like a modern steel pen, was discovered at Pom- 
peii, and is now preserved in the museum at 
Naples; another pen of the same material was found 
at Herculaneum. Bronze and silver pens were 
sometimes employed in the middle ages; but 
these and all metallic pens of dates prior to 
the nineteenth century, were never in general 
use, and may be regarded in the light of 
curiosities. 



PENS AND LEAD-PENCILS 165 

The honor of the invention of making steel 
pens from sheet-metal has had many claimants, 
but the first manufacturer of these articles is really- 
unknown. It is said that Arnoux, a French me- 
chanic, made metal pens with side-slits in 1750. 
The earliest English steel pens, of the manufac- 
ture of which we have any positive knowledge, 
were those made for Dr. Priestley, by Mr. Harri- 
son, split-ring maker of Birmingham, towards the 
end of the eighteenth century. They were made 
of sheet steel, in the form of a tube, and were filed 
into shape, the slit being made by the joining of the 
metal. Brass pens were in use in England before 
the close of the eighteenth century. Barrel pens 
of steel were sold in London in 1803, but they 
were too high in price for the general market. 
In 1808 the first English patent for the manu- 
facture of steel pens was granted to Bryan Donkin. 
In America the first patent for the manufacture 
of metallic pens was obtained in 1810 by Pere- 
grine Williamson of Baltimore. Mr. James Perry 
made steel pens at Manchester in 1819, using the 
best Sheffield steel. Afterwards he removed to 
London and continued his experiments in the 
production of better pens. In 1830 Perry took 
out a patent for improvements. Joseph Gillott 



steel pens. 



166 PENS AND LEAD-PENCILS 

began experiments in 1821. The improvements 
made by these two manufacturers, Perry and 
Gillott, put on a permanent basis the steel-pen 
industry, and the introduction of machinery by 
the Birmingham manufacturers, Gillott, Mason, 
and Mitchell, enabled pens of this metal to be 
sold cheaply and to become the common writing 
instrument. It was not until 1845, however, that 
the quill was generally superseded, in Europe 
and America, by the steel pen. The Asiatic peo- 
ples still use reeds or camel's hair pencils. 

From the sheet of steel to the varnishing, the 
last stage in the manufacture, seventeen main 
processes, besides minor operations, are included 
in the making of a steel pen. 

Steel pens are manufactured chiefly in Birming- 
ham, England. France and Germany have sev- 
eral manufactories, and in the United States, 
there are about half a dozen, situated in New 
Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. 

In England the first gold pens seem to have 
Gold pens. ^^^^ produced in 1825; in the United States, 
about ten years later. As gold is too soft a metal 
to afford a durable point, it is necessary to tip 
the pens with a harder substance. Diamonds and 
rubies were at first attached to the points; gold 



'PENS AND LEAD-PENCILS 167 

pens are now usually tipped with a native alloy 
of osmium and iridium. The iridium was formerly 
soldered to the gold, but about 1850 it was dis- 
covered that better pens could be produced by 
embedding the iridium in the gold. From the 
gold bar purchased from the United States Assay 
Office, already alloyed, to the finished product, 
gold pens pass through at least forty-five different 
processes. As they are so costly, it is absolutely 
necessary that every pen should be perfect, there- 
fore only experts are allow^ed to test them before 
they are put on the market. At least four in a 
dozen are rejected under this scrutiny. 

Although the steel pens of Great Britain sur- 
pass those of the United States in quality of 
metal and workmanship, the latter country stands 
first in the manufacture of gold pens, and sends 
these articles to Great Britain and other European 
countries. 

During the first half of the present century, 
various experiments were made to produce self- 
feeding pens, but it was not until about 1879 that 
they were made to operate successfully. The 
fountain pen, as usually constructed, consists of Fountain 
a tubular holder tightly closed at its upper end. 
At the lower end is inserted a nib pen of gold, 



168 PENS AND LEAD-PENCILS 

with an ink-feeder near it, to draw the ink from 
the reservoir. The admission of air at the lower 
end secm-es a constant automatic feeding by 
means of capillary attraction between the feed- 
plate and the pen. The principle of the fountain 
pen is the retention, by atmospheric pressure, of a 
sufficient quantity of the fluid to serve for several 
hours of continuous writing, thus preventing the 
interruption caused by constantly dipping into an 
ink-well. 

The first pictures were probably traced with 
Lead-pencils, j^j^pg Qf colored earth or chalk, cut in such forms 
as could be conveniently held in the hand. As 
early as the fourth century b. c, artists in Greece 
used wet colors which were applied with fine hair- 
brushes. Some of the papyri and other early docu- 
ments were ruled with ordinary metalHc lead. In 
the early years of the nineteenth century, pencils 
called'' plummets " were still made of soft lead ham- 
mered into form. At the present day graphite, 
also known as plumbago or blacklead, mixed with 
soft clay, is the material generally employed. 

It is not known when pencils of graphite first 
came into use, but it is probable that they were 
employed by the middle of the sixteenth century. 



PENS AND LEAD-PENCILS 169 

In that century a mine of very piu-e graphite was 
discovered in Cumberland, England, and was 
famous for a long time as the Borrowdale mine. 
This mine has been exhausted since 1850, but P,^?f."?^- 

' dale mine. 

while the supply lasted pencils were made of the 
native graphite as taken from the mine. After this 
source failed, graphite was hardened by an admix- 
ture of clay, both substances being finely sub- 
divided and purified. This method was introduced 
at the close of the eighteenth century by the 
Count of Paris. 

At the present time, lead pencils are made as 

^ ' ^ The method 

follows: Graphite, finely ground and freed from of making 

^ ' ./ o lead-peucils. 

all grit and impurities, is mixed with clay to 

give it hardness. The mixture is spun through 
dies by pressure, and the leads are cut into the 
required lengths. The strips are baked to ren- 
der them strong and are afterwards placed in 
grooved cedar slabs. The slabs are fashioned by 
machinery into pencils and are finished in any 
style desired. 

Colored pencils are made of colored pigments 
and wax. They are manufactured in about the 
same way as black pencils, except that, owing 
to the nature of the materials, they cannot be sub- 
jected to the baking process. 



170 PENS AND LEAD-PENCILS 

The great pencil factory of the Faber family was 
estabUshed at Nuremberg in 1761, and the manu- 
facture of black and colored lead-pencils is still 
extensively carried on there. Pencils are also made 
in the United States and in France and Austria. 
The cedar is obtained largely from the forests of 
Florida and Bohemia. 



CHAPTER VI 

INK 

VERY little is definitely known of the composi- 
tion of ancient inks. The black liquid of the ^^cientinks. 
cuttlefish was employed in the early ages as a 
writing fluid. As the ancients used the stilus they 
must have had also carbon inks similar to the 
inks still employed by the Asiatic peoples. 
According to Pliny, Dioscorides, and other ancient 
writers, carbon in the form of soot was the prin- 
cipal ingredient of the inks of their time. The 
soot was mixed with a mucilaginous or adhesive 
fluid, with an acid sometimes added to make it 
bite or sink into the papyrus. The use of iron 
salts seems also to date from a remote period. 

The term ink is applied to two distinct condi- 
tions of coloring matter: the one a fluid to be 
used with the pen or brush; the other a glutinous 
or adhesive mass, such as printing-ink. 

The common ingredients of black ink are nut- 
galls, sulphate of iron, and gum arable, the first Black ink. 
two being chemically combined. The galls are 
first crushed, then extracted with hot water, with 
cloth filters, in vats made for the purpose. These 
(171) 



172 INK 

filters separate the clear solution from the woody 
and gummy residue. The galls are allowed to 
steep for a week or more, until the solution be- 
comes sufficiently concentrated. This liquid is 
then mixed with a solution of copperas, and to this 
mixture are added free sulphuric acid, the indigo 
and aniline blues, a solution of gum arable, and 
an antiseptic, usually phenol (termed carbolic acid) 
or salicylic acid. The gum keeps the ink from 
spreading on the paper, and thus enables the 
writer to make fine strokes with the pen. The 
acid gives to the ink greater fluidity, and also 
prevents the formation of solid particles of iron 
tannate, and precipitation in the vessel. The 
antiseptic is added to keep the ink from 
moulding. 

Color is given to ink by the addition of indigo- 
caimine and some aniline blue. True fluid inks 
containing a blue coloring matter were first made 
in 1856, by Stephens of London. He employed 
only the indigo, as aniline blue was not then 
known. The color of the ink is at first a deep 
blue, turning to black after writing. 

The yellow appearance of old writing is due to 
the decay of the vegetable matter, mere rust 
or peroxide of iron being left. Such writing 



INK 173 

can be rendered blacker and more legible by the 
use of prussiate of potash and dilute hydrochloric 
or sulphuric acid, or by the infusion of galls. Very 
ancient manuscripts have been thus restored. A 
work on Roman Law, by Gains, was deciphered by 
applying an infusion of galls. 

Printing-ink is a mixture of boiled oil and black 
or colored pigment. In black ink, the pigment 
is lampblack or other carbonaceous matter. To 
these chief ingredients, are added rosin, turpen- 
tine, and common yellow rosin soap. 

Inks may now be manufactured of almost any 
color. The introduction of the coal-tar or aniline 
dyes has added greatly to the variety and rich- 
ness of colored inks. Formerly, red ink was 
made of either cochineal or Brazil-wood. Cochi- 
neal inks are deep and rich in color, but are 
expensive. They are undesirable because of the 
amount of caustic ammonia necessary to dissolve 
the cochineal and keep it in solution. Solutions 
of coal-tar colors have supplanted the more ex- 
pensive Brazil-wood and tin-salt red inks. Crim- 
son, scarlet, and red inks are the common names 
of these solutions. The coloring matter known 
as eosin\ discovered by Caro in 1874, is now gen- 

1 Eosin is derived from the Greek, and means '* dawn of the morn- 
ing." 



Printing-ink. 



Colored inks. 



174 INK 

erally employed to produce these inks. Writing 
in an eosin ink copies easily, but when exposed 
to a strong light soon fades. 

India ink contains the same ingredients as the 
India ink or inks of the early ages and is the form in which ink 

China mJ£. ^ . 

is still made and used in China and Japan. In 
these countries it is used with a brush, both in 
painting and writing. It is made from lamp- 
black and a glutinous substance. In India ink 
the carbon is held suspended in the fluid and 
is not dissolved or chemically combined, as are 
the iron compounds in writing-inks. A perfume, 
such as a mixture of Borneo camphor and musk, 
is added to the finer varieties. This ink is 
prepared in the form of cakes or sticks, which 
are rubbed down in water when used. Fluid 
India ink can be purchased in small quantities. 
Various depths of shade can be obtained, accord- 
ing to the degree of dilution with water. India 
ink is seldom used for ordinary writing, but is em- 
ployed by engineers, architects, and artists, and 
for special purposes. It is blacker than other 
inks and is largely employed in photo-illustration, 
which requires a really black ink to produce the 
best effects. 

Writing in sympathetic inks becomes visible only 



INK 175 

when brought out by heat or the influence of some 
chemical reagent. Among the substances used are o?i?msibie° 
solutions of cobalt acetate, cobalt chloride, and 
nickel chloride. The hydrous cobalt salts are of a 
pale pink color which is invisible on the paper; 
when heated they become anhydrous and turn blue. 
Indelible inks are used for marking textile 
fabrics, and become a deep black when the material indeiiwe ink 

for marking 

is exposed to the direct rays of the sun. The ink textiles, 
generally used for this purpose is an ammoniacal 
solution of nitrate of silver. The stain produced 
by the ink cannot be removed by any reagent 
that would not also destroy the texture of the 
fabric. 

Copying ink is more concentrated than the 
ordinary writing fluids. It contains some soluble 
substance, such as gum arable, sugar, or glycerine, 
which does not make the ink copy but which 
prevents it from drying too rapidly or too 
thoroughly. When paper written upon with copy- 
ing ink, is placed against a moistened sheet, a part 
of the ink is transferred to the wet surface, making 
a reverse copy. Translucent paper is used for 
taking a copy. It is turned over so as to bring 
the letters into their normal position and the 
writing is read from the upper side. 



Copying ink. 



176 INK 

Sepia is a dark-brown coloring matter obtained 
from the ink-sacs of a few species of cuttle-fish, 
principally from Sepia officinalis, which is abun- 
dant in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean Seas. 
As soon as the animal is captured, the ink-sac is 
extracted and at once dried to prevent putrefac- 
tion. The contents are afterwards powdered, 
dissolved in a solution of ammonia or soda, and 
then precipitated by neutrahzing the alkali with 
hydrochloric acid; the precipitate is washed with 
water, dried, and is then ready to be made up into 
any desired form. Sepia is used by itself for 
drawings; in combination with other colors it 
affords various subdued tints. The color is per- 
manent unless exposed to sunshine. Sepia also 
furnishes an India ink. 

The reagent to be used depends on the kind 
ink stains. ^f jj^]^ which has produced the stain. The stain 
should first be dipped into water to ascertain 
the nature of the ink. Aniline inks spread more 
than other inks, and become greenish in color; 
iron and logwood inks turn brown. If this test 
shows the ink to be nigrosine (made from a coal- 
tar color), the stain should be treated with an 
alkali. To remove an iron or a logwood ink, an 
acid should be employed. Muriatic acid will re- 



Removing 



INK 111 

move logwood ink stains, but should not be used 
for an eosin (red) or a nigrosine ink. Oxalic acid 
will efface the stain of an old style iron-gall 
inlv. In general, aniline inks can be removed 
by the use of an alkali; those faihng to be 
affected by an alkali, should be treated with an 
acid. 

An effective way to remove an ink stain is to 
cover the spot first with bleaching-powder; when 
this is moistened with a weak mineral acid the 
chlorine will be set free. Strong acids and alkalies 
must not be used on colored or very delicate fabrics. 

Ink should always be kept in a covered vessel, as 
it becomes thick when left standing in an open 
receptacle, owing to the evaporation of the water. 
When ink contains much gum, it assumes a ropy 
condition and a sediment is formed in the ves- 
sel. When the solution has become too concen- 
trated; it may be diluted with distilled water. 



12 



BOOKBINDmG 



(179) 



BOOKBINDIISra 



T 



CHAPTER I 

ANCIENT COVERS EARLY BINDINGS 

HE earliest attempts to enclose written matter .^^ ^ , 

■^ Attempts of 

within some kind of a cover were made Ions: ?;?i^^f "* p^^ 

<^ pies to en- 

before the Christian era. The object at first was ^rftings. 
merely utility, or the preservation of the writing 
by protecting it from injury. The ancient peo- 
ples of Assyria and Egypt devised simple means 
of encasing their documents, and to the efforts 
thus made may be traced the origin of the art of 
bookbinding. 

The Babylonians and Assyrians sometimes en- 

Babylonia 

closed one clay tablet within another, the outer and Assyria, 
case forming a cover for the inner. The outer 
coating of clay contained an exact copy of the 
original, and rendered the latter inaccessible to 
forgers. 

In Egypt sheets of papyrus were glued together 
to form one long roll. The papyrus roll, as a Egypt, 
rule, was written on one side only, and was fast- 
ened to a wooden rod or roller, around which it 
was wound. 

(181) 



182 



ANCIENT COVEBS 



A Greek or 
Roman roll. 



Pugillaria. 



The old Greek and Roman books were also 
scrolls of papyrus resembling the ancient Egyp- 
tian manuscripts. The rolls were often beauti- 
fully written and richly decorated ; they were 
frequently protected by covers, which were made 
of leather or parchment, dyed purple, yellow, or 
scarlet. Two strings of leather or ribbon were 
attached to the last sheet or the cover of the 
manuscript, and were fastened around the roll to 
keep it tight and firm and to protect it from dust 
and insects. The title was either written on a 
square piece of vellum or parchment, pasted on the 
outside of the cover near the top, or inscribed on 
a label attached to the roll. The ends of the rod 
were sometimes level with the edges of the papy- 
rus, sometimes they projected beyond the roll 
and were ornamented with balls or knobs of wood 
or ivory, or even of gold or precious stones. In 
appearance such a scroll was not unlike a modern 
map, and in this form it was passed from one 
person to another to be read. 

While the roll was the form adopted by the 
Greeks and Romans for lengthy works of a lit- 
erary character, for a long time they made use 
of pugillaria, or, literally, hand-books. These tab- 
lets, or table-books, were of ivory, wood, or metal, 



ANCIENT COVERS 183 

covered with a thin layer of wax, and were con- 
nected at the back by rings; they consisted of 
from two to eight leaves, and were employed 
for taldng notes, keeping accounts, etc. Small 
leaden volimies have been discovered composed 
of six or eight leaves joined at the back by 
rings. The square form proved so convenient 
in the tablet that it was finally adopted for al- 

Introduction 

most every kind of writing. The introduction Pj^^^®^*^ 
of covers consisting of separate leaves is credited 
to Eumenes II., King of Pergamum, but the flat 
book seems to have been used earlier than his 
reign (197-159 ? b. c). 

The term codex, which originally meant the 
trunk or stem of a tree, was applied to these wax- ^ ® ^° ®^ 
lined wooden tablets. The name was given also 
by the Romans to the folded parchment volume, 
more especially to accoimt-books. For literary 
compositions, the term was first applied by Chris- 
tian writers to the sacred Scriptures. It was 
occasionally employed by secular writers at the 
end of the third century, but was not generally 
used until the fifth century. The name has been 
retained to designate the more important an- 
cient manuscripts. 

The square form of book was even more beau- 



184 



EARLY BINDINGS 



Decoration of 
the square 
book. 



The diptych. 



Roll super- 
seded by the 
folded vol- 
ume 



tifully decorated than the manuscript roll, as it 
lent itself more readily to the embellisher's art. 
Carved figures were generally placed on the dip- 
tych, the name applied to a two-leaved tablet of 
large dimensions used by consuls and other func- 
tionaries. The Roman consular diptychs are con- 
sidered important works of art, those discovered 
dating from the middle of the third to the middle 
of the sixth century. In later times the ivory 
panels of the diptychs were often transferred to 
the covers of valuable manuscripts; owing to this 
practice, many fine specimens of sculptured 
ivories have come down to the present time. 

In the fourth century of the present era, 
the roll was gradually superseded by the folded 
volume. The use of the flat form of book, with its 
decorated and often sumptuous cover, was due, in a 
great measure, to the influence of the Christian 
religion. It was the custom, in these early days 
of the Church, to keep a copy of the Gospels on 
the table or altar ; and for this purpose and for 
reading certain portions of the Scriptures during 
the service, the book was found much more con- 
venient than the scroll. As the ritual advanced 
the covers of the volumes were decorated in a style 
to accord with the rich furniture of the altar. Only 



EARLY BINDINGS 185 

the front of the book could be seen as it lay upon 
the table, therefore only the upper side of the 
cover was ornamented, the reverse being left plain. 

From the beginning of the art of bookbinding, 
the first portion of the work, known in modern SSdiS^^ 
times as the forwarding, has always been sub- 
stantially the same. The sheets were stitched 
together in their proper order and were attached 
at the back to leather bands, which extended 
about an inch beyond the edges of the book; the 
ends of the bands were fastened to wooden 
boards which formed a cover for the sides of the 
volume; the back and exterior surface of the 
wood were covered with skin or leather, the mar- 
gins being turned over the edges of the board, 
and glued down on the inside. Since the fifteenth 
century, the principal changes have been the sub- 
stitution of cords or strings for leather bands, of 
pasteboard for the heavy wooden sides, and of 
paper or cloth for the leather covers. 

Before the sixth century precious stones began 
to be used in the decoration of covers. Byzantine 

Precious 

coatings were chiefly of metal, — gold, silver, and stones, 
copper-gilt, — into which jewels were introduced. 
An ivory carving was often placed in the centre, 
with a border of gold and jewels around it. 



186 EARLY BINDINGS 

We find that in the middle ages bindings and 
the works they contain often belong to quite dis- 
tinct periods. Bindings made originally for small 
volumes have been used at a later date as the 
centres of larger covers and surrounded with 
borders. When the covers were veritable works 
of art, decoration was frequently added in subse- 
quent periods, hence it is often difficult to fix the 
date with certainty. 

During the middle ages the monasteries were the 
Monastic principal depositories of learning and art. The 
monks not only wrote and illuminated books, but 
also bound them, and continued to follow the calling 
imtil the introduction of printing. The bindings of 
the books made by the monks were oaken boards, 
often an inch thick. Ornaments of precious 
metal were sometimes placed on the boards them- 
selves. When the boards were first covered, skins 
of animals were used, the favorite skin being stag- 
hide; common parchment and vellum were also 
employed. Roughly-dressed deerskin or calf skip 
was sometimes drawn over the boards, with the 
hair left on the cover, enough of the hair being re- 
moved to give space for an inscription. The 
corners were protected with large bosses of brass. 



bindings. 



EARLY BINDINGS 187 

The covers were often embellished with ivory- 
carvings of figures in relief, and garnished with 
gold, silver, and precious stones; they were gen- 
erally fastened with a strong clasp of brass, on 
which the arms of the owner were sometimes en- 
graved. 

In monastic bindings the sheets were sewed on 
pieces of skin or parchment; each sheet was pro- 
tected internally and externally with a slip of 
parchment, to prevent the thread, used in the 
sewing, from cutting the paper, and to protect the 
back from injury. 

During the middle ages there were in most 
European cities secular craftsmen, such as the 
leather-worker, the goldsmith, the sculptor, and the 
worker in enamel; the labors of all these work- 
men were sometimes combined in the production 
of a single cover ; the bookbinder probably labored 
at other trades similar to his own. At a later 
period the bookbinders became members of various 
trade guilds; the monasteries, however, still exer- 
cised a fostering care over all the arts. 

Of these books of the monks, very few examples 
remain. The boards which formed the basis of 
the binding, instead of protecting the manuscripts 
often led to their destruction; they became a 



188 EARLY BINDINGS 

lodgment place for worms, and the grubs in pro- 
cess of time found their way to the pages and 
riddled them with holes. The revolutions and 
reformations which at different periods have con- 
vulsed Europe have, besides, swept away the 
greater number of such volumes as had withstood 
the ravages of time; those that remain are price- 
less as rehcs and are, with few exceptions, de- 
posited in the great libraries of Europe. 

For a long time, velvet was used to cover the 
best works; colored cloth was also so employed. 
During this early period great progress was being 
made in the art of working on leather, especially 
in Germany. The Germans produced many beau- 
feather*^' ^^^^ stamped-leather bindings, ornamented with 
bindings. metal clasps, corner-pieces, and bosses. Augsburg 
and Nuremberg were famed for this kind of work. 
It was brought to such a high degree of excellence 
by the German artists that in richness it rivaled 
the goldsmith's work. 

In Spain and Italy bookbinding also flourished 
before the fifteenth century. The city of Siena has 
a magnificent collection of bindings, extending 
from about the thirteenth to the seventeenth cen- 
tury. The covers of the Treasury books there 



EARLY BINDINGS 189 



preserved, and which have been framed, are adorned 
with paintings by famous artists. The binders of 
Italy excelled in beautiful ivory, gold, and jew- 
eled covers, also in fine leather work. 

In France, during this period, nothing remark- 
able seems to have been achieved in the way of 
bookbinding. From the inventories of libraries 
and of goods and jewels belonging to kings and 
nobles of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we 
glean some information as to the bindings of 
their books. The covers were of velvet, silk, em- 
broidery, and leather, and were adorned with orna- 
ments of metal and sometimes with precious 
stones. 

In the eleventh century enameUng begins to 
appear in the decoration of covers. In the Cluny ^q^^}^ 
Museum at Paris, are two magnificent plates of 
Limoges enamel, which have evidently been taken 
from the cover of a book. 



CHAPTER II 



MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 



Patronage 
given to 
bookbinding. 



Hungary— 
Mathias Cor- 
vinus. 



Ital 
Mec 
family 



ici 



■The 



TT was chiefly owing to the patronage of the 
^ wealthy and of lovers of books that progress was 
made in the art of bookbinding. Patrons of liter- 
ature existed not only in Italy, but in Western 
Europe and England. Bookbinding as a fine 
art began in Italy during the Renaissance, but 
was most highly cultivated in France. 

Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary, who died 
in 1490, ranks among the first patrons of the art 
during this early period. He had a library of fifty 
thousand manuscripts and books, encased in the 
most costly and magnificent bindings. This 
library was destroyed in 1526, when Solyman II. 
laid siege to Buda. Only a few volumes escaped 
the ravages of the Turks, and the greater number 
of these w^ere placed in the Imperial Library at 
Vienna. 

In Italy literature flourished under the patron- 
age of the Medici family. Their books seem to 
have been embellished without regard to expense. 

(190) 



MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 191 

The works collected by Piero de' Medici (1464- 
1469) are decorated with miniatures, gilding, and 
other ornamentation, and are distinguished by 
the fleur-de-lis. Those acquired by Lorenzo 
(1469-1492), called the '' father of literature,", 
are also encased in bindings of great elegance; 
they are stamped with the Medicean arms and 
with a laurel branch, in allusion to his name 
Laurentius, and bear the motto " Semper.", 

The lavish use of ornament in the binding of 
books was carried into the sixteenth century. One 
of the most famous libraries of the time was 
that of Cardinal Mazarin, in his palace on the cardinal 

Mazarin. 

Quirinal Hill at Rome; it contained five thousand 
volumes, "bound by artists who came express 
from Paris.'' 

In Spain encouragement was given to the art 
by Cardinal Ximenes, Confessor to Queen Isabella, dfna?" *'* 
and Phihp II. (1556-1598). Saragossa and Seville pinip ii. 
produced many beautiful bindings, but few have 
been preserved to the present day. 

The libraries of Germany contain bindings of 
almost every age and description. 

After the introduction of the printing-press, the 

1 <•! 1-1 . Ill T^a<^e bind- 

work of the binder increased and became more ingsand 

special bind- 

important, hence arose a distinction which remains ^^ss. 



192 MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 

to the present day, — trade bindings and special 
bindings. The special bindings were made for 
great collectors, or for presentation purposes. 

During the first hundred years in the history 
of typography, the printer was generally a sta- 
tioner and also a binder, and if he had registered 
as a bookseller, he sold the volumes he had 
bound. These early productions are distinguished 
alike for beauty of typography and thoroughness 
of workmanship. Many books bound from four 
to six hundred years ago are now in almost as 
good condition as when first issued. 

In France, Germany, and the Netherlands, the 
bookbinders enrolled themselves in guilds; they 
were constantly training new workmen and raising 
the standard of their art. 

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
leather bindings appeared in great mmibers. 
bfndings. As early as the twelfth century there was a distinct 
English school of binding which produced beau- 
tiful tooled-leather work. The sides of the 
covers were ornamented with small dies cut in in- 
taglio, so that the impression on the leather was in 
cameo, or in relief. Some of the early designs 
represent men, birds, beasts, and fishes ; the figures, 
though grotesque, are full of expression and ani- 



MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 193 

mation. The die-sinker often copied the wild 
creatures inhabiting the woods and wastes, with 
whose habits he had long been familiar. Among 
other subjects were angels, ecclesiastics, knights 
on horseback, fabulous beasts, and conventional 
leaf and flower ornaments. 

In the Netherlands large panel-stamps appeared 
about the middle of the fourteenth century. It is stamp. 
not known, however, to whom they owe their 
origin. By means of the panel-stamp the whole of 
the side of a small book could be decorated from 
one, or at most from two blocks. A century later, 
when many books of small size began to issue from 
the printing-press, this quick and easy method of 
ornamentation was generally adopted in the Neth- 
erlands, France, and England. 

William Caxton, who returned from Bruges to 
England in 1477, combined the art of binding ton's bind-^^" 
with the printer's craft. The greater number of ^°^^' 
his books which have come down to us have been 
rebound, but a few still retain their original covers 
of brown stamped leather. 

In French bindings we find many panel-stamps 
of great beauty. 

Early in the sixteenth century the bookbinders The heraldic 
of London adopted a pair of heraldic panels for ^ ^^^' 



194 MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 

their covers. One contained the royal arms sup- 
ported by a greyhound and a dragon; the other 
a large Tudor rose, supported by angels, and a 
motto. Under the rose or royal shield, the binder 
sometimes placed his initials. All volumes bear- 
ing the arms of kings and queens have not, how- 
ever, at some time belonged to the royal library. 
The arms probably represented some privilege or 
were the sign of some guild. John Reynes, a 
famous London printer and bookbinder, employed 
two varieties of heraldic panels, and in his case 
they represented special privileges. 

The pictorial stamp is not so often found in 

Jtam?^*°^^^^ English books as the heraldic stamp ; it is probable 
that the greater number of pictorial stamps used in 
England were imported from the Continent. The 
service-books brought from France and the Nether- 
lands into England, early in the sixteenth century, 
bear the figures of certain saints, the most usual 
being St. Catherine, St. Barbara, St. Nicholas, and 
St. John the Baptist; St. Michael and St. George 
also occur in these early panels. 

Books of large size, which could not be readily 

The roll- decoratcd with panel-stamps, were ornamented 
with roll-stamps. With the introduction of the roll, 
began the rapid decline of stamped binding. At 



MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 195 

first the rolls were broad, measuring about an inch 
across, and produced a handsome effect; this orna- 
mentation, however, gradually became smaller, 
until at the end of the sixteenth centiu^y it was 
little more than a scroll; in the seventeenth cen- 
tury it appeared indented as in gold-tooling. 

Many examples of embroidered book-covers are 
found during the middle ages; the greater num- Embroidered 

° o ; o book-covers. 

ber of the embroidered bindings in the British 
Museum, however, are of the seventeenth cen- 
tury; in the sixteenth century they were often 
used for books of devotion and for presentation 
copies. The embroidery was worked on a 
foundation of velvet, satin, silk, linen, or canvas; 
the materials used were colored silks, wool, worsted, 
thread, gold and silver wire, seed pearls, and 
metallic spangles. The ladies of England pro- 
duced embroidered covers of remarkable beauty, 
and those of France, Spain, and the Netherlands 
also did excellent work. 

By tooling is meant impressions made on leather 
by hot metal dies. When gold is thus impressed, ^°° ^°^" 
the work is termed gold-tooling; when leather is 
stamped without the use of metal, it is called 
blind-tooHng. 



196 MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 

In Europe gold-tooled binding was first known 
in Italy, where it had been introduced from 
the East by means of Venetian commerce, probably 
during the latter part of the fifteenth century. 
It afterwards became distinctively a French art. 
This method of ornamentation seems to have been 
introduced into England in the sixteenth century, 
in the reign of Henry VIII. (1509-1547), by Thomas 
Berthelet or Bartlet. 

Aldus Manu ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ Manutius (1449-1515) did much 
tius. -to reform European bookbinding. He began to 

organize his printing-office in Venice about 1489, 
and afterwards gathered around him artists and 
learned men both from the Levant and from 
Western Europe. To the Academy that he estab- 
lished came Hans Holbein, Geoffroy Tory, and 
other artists, who carried back to Germany, 
France, and England the methods they had learned 
in Italy. Among the friends of Aldus were Tom- 
maso Maioli and Jean Grolier, the famous book- 
lovers. Aldus covered his volumes with vellum or 
leather, usually without decoration ; his earliest 
bindings and those intended as gifts to friends 
and patrons were ornamented with gold-tooling. 
This great printer died in 1515, but the press was 
continued by his family for some time afterwards. 



MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 197 

Two of the most distinguished book-collectors 
the world has ever known were Tommaso Maioli 
and Jean Grolier. 

MaioU Hved in Italy in the first half of the 
sixteenth century (c. 1500-1549). He belonged SST 
to a family of book collectors; Michele Maioli, sup- 
posed to be either his father or his uncle, was a 
scientific WTiter and also a collector. The Maioli 
bindings are generally in good taste. The leading 
features of the ornament are broad lines edged 
with gold, either curiousty interlaced, or running 
in graceful curves; slender sprays of conventional 
foliage and numerous dots of gold lend elegance 
to the designs. The scrolls and foliage are often 
in white, edged with gold, placed on a dark back- 
ground of leather. 

Jean GroHer de Servin, Vicomte d'Aiguise, the 
great French bibliophile, hved from 1479 to 1565. 
His library was noted for its beautiful bindings. 
It is said that many of his books were bound in 
his own house, under his own eye, and that he 
often put his own hand to them. It is probable 
that some of his volumes were bound for him in 
Italy, during his residence there. GroUer became 
Minister of Finance to the kings of France, and 
spent much time in Italy, either in military com- 



Jean Grolier. 



198 MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 

mand or as an ambassador. In Venice he made 
the acquaintance of Aldus and of the artists and 
learned men of his Academy; he continued to 
patronize the Aldine press during the remainder 
of his life. In the leisure of his official functions, 
he sought out new combinations and interfacings 
for his bindings. Grolier, however, was not a 
binder but an amateur possessed of exquisite taste 
and with abundant wealth to indulge it. 

It was the practice of book-lovers to offer 
the enjoyment of their hbraries to their friends. 
Both Maioli and Grolier placed inscriptions or 
mottoes upon their books. One of the most 
usual employed by Groher was '' lo Grolierii et 
Amicorum.''. 

To Grolier is ascribed the introduction of letter- 
ing-pieces on the backs of books and placing vol- 
imies on the shelves with the backs outwards. He 
is credited also with having been the first to use 
morocco leather for binding. 

Cameo bindings originated in Italy, in the early 
WMiSgs. P^^^ ^^ ^^^ sixteenth century. The real cameos 
were copies of antique gems and medals, made of 
a sort of lacquered paste, and were glued into a 
depression on the side of the cover; the French 
imitated this mode of decoration by simply 




(illOLIl-.Jt 1UN1I1-N<;. 

[From " Bookbindings Old and New," Brander Mattliews. By 
permission of Mr. Matthews and the Macmillan Company.] 



MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 199 

stamping the leather in rehef . Examples of Italian 
cameos are those found on the books once belong- 
ing to the library of Demetrio Canevari ; the sub- 
ject of the central oval stamp, which is in gold, 
silver, and colors, being invariably Apollo driving 
his chariot over the waves. 



The Eves. 



CHAPTER III 

MEDIEVAL BINDINGS — MODERN BINDINGS 

HTHE Eves were a family of binders who worked for 
-*- the kings of France from about 1578 to 1631. 
Nicholas, the first, is said to have bound books 
about 1565, for the famous mistress of Henry II., 
Diane de Poitiers, who possessed some of the most 
beautiful bindings ever produced. In the Eve style 
of work the compartments of the geometrical 
designs are surrounded by scrolls or spirals and 
branches of palm and olive. In their earlier 
work the designs were graceful, but the com- 
partments were not filled in; after a time their 
binding became very elaborate, and they finally 
abandoned the geometrical designs altogether, 
using only the wreaths and palm branches. The 
name fanfare was afterwards given to this flour- 
ishing style of ornament. 

The bindings of Oxford and Cambridge Uni- 

Oxfordand . . ... „ . 

Cambridge versities Were distinguished for superior workman- 
ship, although they were not noticeably artistic^ 
(200) 



Universities. 



centuries. 



MEDIEVAL BINDINGS 201 

The materials adopted by Sir Thomas Bodley for 
the Oxford bindings were leather, vellum, and 
occasionally velvet. The later bindings of these 
imiversities are marked by improved taste and are 
prized by some modern collectors. 

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centmies binders 
continued to beat their books on a stone with a and sixteenth 
wooden hammer, to give them the, proper sohdity. 
They often made use of a slip of parchment around 
the end-papers and the first and last sheets, to 
protect the backs from injury and to strengthen 
the joint. Parchment or stout paper was used to 
strengthen the last leaf, as the inside lining of the 
boards, and sometimes for the entire binding of 
ordinary books; it is owing to this practice 
that, in later times, fragments of early manuscripts, 
before unknown, have been discovered ; but many 
valuable works, thus applied to binding purposes, 
must have entirely disappeared. The sheets were 
sewed on strong sHps of white leather, placed 
equally distant from each other, which form 
the four, five, or six raised cords or bands seen 
on the backs of volumes encased in these 
early bindings. In these two centuries board 
covers of wood were still used, generally of 
oak or beech, but thinner than those of the 



202 



SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BINDINGS 



Sixteenth 
century. 



Jacques Au- 
guste de 
Thou. 



preceding period. Three kinds of commercial 
bindings were known, — board, leather, and parch- 
ment. For the use of the noble and the rich, 
books were bound in more costly materials; for 
volumes of special interest or value, velvet was 
generally employed. 

In the sixteenth century wooden boards were 
finally discarded for pads of paper and sheets of 
cardboard. In this century the ''plough," used 
to cut the leaves even, made its appearance. 

In the sixteenth century bookbinding attained 
its highest degree of development on the Conti- 
nent. For artistic taste and thoroughness of work- 
manship, it has never since been equaled. Beau- 
tiful covers were produced not only in Italy, 
Germany, and France, but in Spain and even in 
the Slavonic provinces of the East. 

In the seventeenth century the French pro- 
duced many fine bindings; in the eighteenth 
century their work retrograded. In Italy, during 
this period, the art was rapidly declining. 

A famous collector, whose labors extended into 
the seventeenth century, was Jacques Auguste de 
Thou (1553-1617), who became keeper of the 
royal library under Henry IV. of France. His 
bindings were generally plain and substantial, the 



SEVENTEENTH CENTURY BINDINGS 203 

only ornament being a gold armorial stamp in the 
centre; for choice volumes he used an elaborate 
gold ornament in the fanfare style. His materials 
were red, green, and lemon morocco, fawn-colored 
calf, and white vellum. 

The National Library of Paris possesses the 
earliest known example of a doublure, or inside 
lining of the cover of a book; it is an Italian 
binding of 1550. Florimond Badier, one of the 
binders of Louis XIV., is said to have been the • 
first to make any extensive use of this innova- 
tion. Mace Ruette, who bound books for Louis 
XIIL between 1606 and 1638, is credited with the 
introduction into France of yellow marbled moroc- 
co and marbled paper. This marbled paper was 
sometimes used for the inner leaves of books, and 
almost universally for the douhlures. The inside 
lining, as well as the cover, of fine volumes is 
often of leather, which is artistically decorated. 

Le Gascon is regarded as one of the foremost of 
bookbinders. M. Marius-Michel thinks he may Le Gascon, 
have been a pupil or an apprentice of the binders 
who worked for De Thou. He made use of grace- 
ful curved lines, formed by the repetition of 
countless gold dots or points, which produced a 
brilliant effect on the scarlet morocco ground. 



204 



MODERN BINDINGS 



Seventeenth 
century — 
England. 



Eighteenth 
century- 
France. 



In England; in the seventeenth century, little 
encouragement could be given to the art because 
of the unsettled condition of the country, owing 
to the civil wars of Charles I., the influence of the 
Puritans, and the profligacy of the reign of Charles 
II., whereby the patronage of the wealthy was 
removed. Oaken boards were discarded, a thick 
but flimsy pasteboard being now used for covers; 
the bands of hempen cord were drawn through 
holes pierced through the boards. The process 
of beating books to produce solidity was still 
continued, and the sewing and backing were well 
done. 

In the eighteenth century bookbinding flourished 
in France, and we find a long array of names of 
those who practised the art. Among the distin- 
guished binders were Padeloup, Derome, Le Mon- 
nier, Boyet, Du Seuil, Douceur, Anguerrand, and 
Dubuisson. The first two names represent each 
a dynasty; it is said that there were twelve Pade- 
loups and fourteen Deromes, all booksellers and 
bookbinders. The most noted were Nicholas and 
Antoine Michel Padeloup and James Anthony 
Derome. 

During the time of the Revolution and the 
First Republic, the art naturally sank to a low 



MODERN BINDINGS 205 

ebb. This period of degradation lasted until 
about 1830, when binders began to be inspired with 
higher ideals. Modern French work is characterized 
by perfect forwarding and finishing, but is lacking 
in originaHty of design. Among the names of 
celebrated modern binders may be mentioned 
Trautz, Bauzonnet, Purgold, Cap^, Duru, Lortic, 
Hardy-Meunil, Belz-Niedree, Thibaron, Thouvenin, 
Cuzin, Marius-Michel, and Leon Gruel; the latter 
two have written valuable works upon the history 
of bookbinding in France. 

In the beginning of the eighteenth century 
large and valuable hbraries began to be estab- Eighteenth 

century — 

lished in England. As a consequence of the England. 
increased demand for books, more attention was 
given to their bindings. Morocco, russia, and 
brown calf were the chief materials used. The 
improvements seem to have been made more in 
the forwarding than in the finishing of the work. 
The subjects of the ornamentation of the covers 
frequently bore no relation whatever to the con- 
tents of the volume, and the tools were of the 
poorest design, without an attempt at convention- 
ality. 

The most distin2;uished collector of this century 

Robert Har- 

was Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, whose library, ley- 



206 MODERN BINDINGS 

known as the Harleian Collection, is now in the 
British Museum. The books are bound chiefly in 
red morocco, with a broad border of gold round the 
sides, some having also a centre ornament. 

The sawn back is considered to have been in- 
back!^^^ troduced in the middle of the eighteenth century, 
but there is evidence of the use of something of 
this kind in the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
tury. By this method the bands are let into 
a groove in the backs of the sheets, and no 
projecting cords are seen, but the back is not 
flexible. It is not known just where this pro- 
cess was first employed, but the idea seems to 
have been derived from the Dutch bindings, the 
method was reluctantly adopted by the French 
and EngHsh binders. Raised cords were soon 
relegated to school-books. From the tim^e of the 
introduction of the sawn back until the end of 
the eighteenth century, calf-gilt was generally 
employed for binding. The covers usually con- 
formed to one pattern, having marbled sides, brown 
backs, and colored lettering-pieces. The open 
or hollow back was rarely used, and the back was 
made sufficiently stiff to prevent the leather from 
wrinkling when the book was opened. 

Towards the close of the eighteenth century, 



MODERN BINDINGS 207 

bindings assumed an entirely different appearance, 
owing to the efforts of Roger Payne. He was Roger payne. 
the first binder who attempted to harmonize 
the decoration with the character of the vol- 
umes themselves. Payne worked upon straight- 
grained morocco, stained dark blue or bright red, 
and also upon russia leather; his favorite color 
seems to have been olive. His ornaments were 
chaste, beautiful, and classical. So far as possible, 
Payne did all the various processes of the work 
with his own hands. Unfortunately he was in- 
temperate, but was given constant employment 
by the noble and the wealthy. Payne's best work 
went to the Spencer Library. His superior work- 
manship proved a stimulus to the trade, and 
introduced a chastened style of ornamentation 
among the binders of London. 

Charles Lewis, who ranks among the best of 
English binders, was at the head of his profession charies 
between 1802 and 1840. Dr. Dibdin thus speaks 
of him: "T]\q particular talent of Lewis consists 
in uniting the taste of Roger Payne with a freedom 
of forwarding and squareness of finishing pecu- 
liarly his own. His books appear to move on 
silken hinges." 

Francis Bedford, born in London in 1800, was 



Lewis. 



208 



MODERN BINDINGS 



Francis Bed- 
ford. 



Peculiarities 
in bindings. 



considered the greatest binder of his time. His 
bindings are substantial and sober, but possess 
little originality or artistic merit. 

About 1830 the materials used in bindings of 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries began to be 
revived. Velvet and silk became fashionable for 
drawing-room table books. Modern bindings of 
velvet were adopted for many large libraries, among 
which were the collection of King George III. 
and the libraries of Earl Spencer, York Minster, 
and Ripon Cathedral. 

Some peculiarities in bookbindings deserve 
special notice. In some instances the material of 
the cover was made to coincide with the nature 
of the book. Foxe's historical work was bound 
in jox^s skin, and '^Tuberville on Hunting," 
in deerskin, the cover being ornamented with a 
stag in silver. Eccentricities were carried even 
to the use of human leather for binding. It is 
said that M. Camille Flammarion, the great 
French astronomer, had a volume bound in the 
skin of a countess whose white shoulders he once 
admired, and who, on dying, made him the strange 
bequest of her integument, to be used as a cover 
for his work describing the world of stars. There 
are a number of other books in existence, said to 



MODERN BINDINGS 209 

be encased in this ''human covering," so repug- 
nant to every person of refined taste. 

In England bookbinding has many patrons who 
have contributed much to the improvement of the 
art, and the number of master binders in London 
has, in consequence, greatly increased. Much of 
the success is due to the improvements in the 
machinery used, among which are the hydraulic mentsin 

. . . machinery. 

press, the rolling-machine, the arming- or em- 
bossing-press, and nimierous appliances heated by 
gas or propelled by steam. 

Robert Leighton was the first to adopt nearly all 
the machinery now employed in large binderies, Leighton. 
He invented the backing- and trimming-machines, 
and was the first to employ aluminium and black 
and colored inks for cloth covers; he also intro- 
duced steam-power for embossing in gold. Many 
improvements to facilitate the work of binding 
have since been invented. 



On the Thames, between Chelsea and Chiswick, 
in a modest two-and-a-half-story house, is situated J^^^ery!^^ 
the famous Doves Bindery of Mr. Cobden-Sander- 
son. 

Mr. Cobden-Sanderson is the most distinguished 

, . , r^• • -r^ 1. • n i- n , , Mr. Cobden- 

bmder of his tmae. Believing handicraft to be the Sanderson. 
14 



210 MODERN BINDINGS 

salvation of humanity and that a man should 
toil with his hands, he abandoned the bar, which 
he had chosen as his profession, and studied the 
trade of bookbinding. At first he did all the 
work with his own hands, the only aid being given 
by his wife, a daughter of Mr. Richard Cobden, 
who took charge of the sewing. He designs his 
own tools, which are cut especially for his use. 

This master binder does not care to produce 
many covers, but it is needless to say that his 
best effort goes to each. Each design is thought 
out for the book itself, the decorative scheme 
being at times suggested by some representative 
passage of the author. Believing that "beauty 
is the aim of decoration, and not illustration or 
the expression of ideas,'! his bindings are decora- 
tive in character and not illustrative. Although 
the scheme of ornamentation may have been 
suggested by some passage in the book, we find 
on his covers no childish symbolism or mere label- 
ing, which have no decorative value. His bind- 
ings are generally ornamented with conventional- 
ized flowers which occur in geometrical precision. 
He studied the methods of Le Gascon, and pro- 
bably from him derived the idea of imparting 
brilliancy to his designs by the free use of gold 




COBDEN-SANDEKSON BINDING. 

[From -'Bookbindings Old and New," Brander Matthews. By 
ptermission of Mr. Matthews and the Macmillan Company.] 



MODERN BINDINGS 211 

points, stars, single leaves, and like ornamen- 
tation. 

The work of the Doves Bindery is all done by- 
hand on leather tooled in gold. Every detail is 
carefully thought out and executed in the most 
painstaking manner; nothing is slighted or hurried 
over. The decoration is put on, not by the single 
impression of a stamp, but is built up step by step; 
the books, therefore, bear the impress of mind and 
not of mechanism. Mr. Cobden-Sanderson no 
longer himself binds, but still designs; his assist- 
ants attend to the execution of the designs and 
the actual binding. 



CHAPTER IV 

COMMERCIAL BINDINGS 

A LTHOUGH in edition work, many volumes 
-^ have been decorated without regard to the 
principles of art, there has been an improvement 
in this direction of late years, and the designs 
occasionally attain a high degree of excellence. 
There must always be a difference between 
what is made by hand and what is produced 
by a machine ; but a book-cover stamped by steam 
becomes pleasing to the cultivated taste when it 
bears the impress of a design which is truly 
artistic. Cloth binding, although originating in 
Great Britain, has been carried to much greater 
mechanical excellence by machines invented or 
improved in the United States. 

The distinction between special bindings and 
commercial or trade bindings arose soon after the 
introduction of the printing-press. The early 
printers were binders as well as publishers; their 
books which have come down to us attest to the 
thoroughness with which they did their work. 
When every touch of gold on a cover had to be 
(212) 



C03I3IERCIAL BINDINGS 213 

made by the separate impression of a tool, the 
process was necessarily laborious and expensive; 
consequently, very early in the history of the art 
attempts were made to simplify the work of the 
decorator. 

Among the fii'st tools adopted was the roulette, 
or roll. This contained a complete pattern en- ero e . 
graved on the circumference of a wheel, the pat- 
tern reproducing itself as the wheel was rolled 
across the cover. The roulette was used for borders 
and frameworks. 

The next device was the combination of engraved 
blocks to form a pattern in some degree appropriate combination 

of Gn2[T3>VG(l 

to the contents of the volume. The binder kept blocks. 
in stock a variety of blocks of different sizes and 
subjects, sometimes related in pairs or in sets of 
f om-s ; these he rearranged to form corners, centre- 
pieces, and panels, to suit his books as they were 
successively issued. He was obliged, however, at 
times tq make use of the roulette and of hand- 
work. 

In order to dispense altogether with handwork, 
and thus quicken the production of books, one The engraved 
design was engraved for the whole side of a vol- 
ume, and was stamped on the cover at a single 
stroke of the press. The Tory plate was com- 



214 COMMERCIAL BINDINGS 

plete in itself, but some plaques still left details to 
be filled in by the hand of the workman. 

The roulette, the combination of blocks, and the 
engraved plate, were employed simultaneously for 
several centuries. 

The early commercial binding was an attempt 
to reproduce artistic work done entirely by hand; 
modern commercial binding is no longer a mere 
imitation of handwork and is developing along its 
own lines. 

Half-binding had its origin in Germany, and is 
Half-binding a money-saving device. In this method leather is 
quarter bind- used Only for the back, with its necessary hinge, 

ing. 

and the corners of the cover; a very deep back 
of leather with larger corners is termed three- 
quarter binding. 

The English binders carried this economy still 
farther, and, dispensing altogether with the 
leather, covered with paper both the sides and the 
backs of their books. A volume thus sheathed in 
boards was not desirable, as the back was liable to 
crack and come off and the sides to break away. 
This method proving unsatisfactory, plain glazed 
calico was substituted for the paper; this was 
the beginning of cloth binding. At first there 
was no attempt at decoration; the title was still 



COMMERCIAL BINDINGS 215 

printed on a white paper label, which was pasted 
on the back of the book. 

Cloth binding arose in England, and is said to 
have been introduced by Archibald Leighton in PJ^^^ ^^^^• 
1822. At first the binding had a ''smooth- 
washed'' surface, but about 1831 or 1832 embossed 
cloth came into use. The first volume of ''Lord 
B}rron's Life and Works/' published in 1832, was 
bound in green cloth, and had a green paper label 
on the back, with the title and coronet printed 
on it in gold. When, in the same year, the second 
volume appeared, the title and coronet were 
stamped in gold upon the cloth, the label being 
omitted altogether. This is supposed to be the 
first work issued with the title printed in gold 
directly on the cloth. It is thought, however, that 
some volumes of a series of "Oxford EngHsh 
Classics" mav have been so stamped before this 
" Byron." 

Stamping, at first, must have been done by a 
hand-press, or an "arming-press," as it was called. ^Stslnma- 
The cloth was dyed to any desired color, and was c^^^^ry. 
run through rollers to give it the grain or texture 
that was wanted. Steam was soon used instead 
of foot-power, and other improvements enabled 
the binder to imprint the pattern on the cover 



216 



COMMERCIAL BINDINGS 



Commercial 
bindings in 
the United 
States and 
Great Britain. 



American 
binders. 



in as many colors as could be employed to pro- 
duce good work. Binding is now done with great 
speed; a modern bindery can turn out several 
thousand copies of a cover in twenty-four hours. 

In artistic handwork the leather case is attached 
to the book, after which the ornamentation is 
added. In cloth binding, or edition work, the 
cover is made and decorated before it is affixed 
to the volume. In edition work the process is 
wholly mechanical, with the exception of the de- 
signing of the stamp. 

Although countless numbers of volumes have 
been clothed in undesirable covers, still much ma- 
chine binding has been done which is chaste and 
beautiful. In the decoration of commercial bind- 
ings the United States seems to surpass Great 
Britain. For the higher class of books, the Eng- 
lish still regard the cloth cover as a mere tem- 
porary case^ each collector binding his books 
according to his own taste. In America, on the 
contrary, the cloth cover is more generally retained, 
and more attention is therefore given to the taste- 
ful decoration of bindings. Among distinguished 
American binders may be mentioned Mr. WilUam 
Matthews, the Bradstreets, Mr. Stikeman, and Mr. 
Otto Zahn. 



CHAPTER V 

FORWARDING 

rpHE various processes employed in the binding 
-*- of a book are known by the general term of 
forwarding. The decoration of the cover is called 
the -finishing. In artistic leather binding, the 
book is covered and embellished by hand, each 
volume being treated individually. The method 
outlined in the following paragraphs is that em- 
ployed in cloth binding, or edition work. 

When the flat, dry sheets arrive from the printer, 
they are first folded by machinery, one fold giving p^ji^jj^ 
four pages, two folds eight pages, three folds sixteen 
pages, and four folds thirty-two pages. Folding 
is seldom carried farther than this, as the constant 
doubhng of the paper causes the sheets to be of 
unequal size. 

On the gathering table, the sheets are arranged 
in piles, in the order of the signatures, which are Gathering, 
the figures or letters found at the foot of the first 
page of each sheet or section of the book. The 
girl who gathers begins at the last pile, and placing 
a sheet on her left arm, takes in due order one 
(217) 



218 



FORWARDING 



Collating. 



Preparation 
for sewing. 



sheet from each pile until she has formed one 
complete book. By another method, the girls sit 
around a revolving table, and as the piles pass, 
each girl takes one sheet from each pile. The book 
is then collated, or examined, to see that only the 
proper sheets have been taken and that none have 
been misplaced. Great care is required in collating 
books with insets, such as plates, maps, or a part 
of a sheet inserted when the whole sheet has been 
divided into multiples of threes, as in twelves, 
eighteens, and twenty-fours. 

Solidity was formerly given to books by beating 
them with a hammer on a, stone or piece of iron; 
they are now rendered compact by the use of the 
hydraulic press or the signature jDress. When 
screwed down tightly, a volume is sometimes 
reduced to one-half its original size. 

The next step is to prepare the book for sewing. 
If the sawn back is to be employed, grooves are 
made in the backs of the sheets. In flexible binding 
the cords are placed on the outside of the sheets ; in 
the sawn back they are sunk into the grooves, and 
the book, consequently, will not be entirely flat 
when opened. The back is generally marked off 
by a pencil into six parts which are equal, with 
the exception of the lowest; this is made a little 



FORWARDING 219 



longer than the others, because if it were of the 
same length, an optical delusion would cause it to 
appear shorter. The depth of the groove and the 
thickness of the cords depend upon the size of the 
book ; if the cords are too large the book will not 
open well. The sawing is done by a machine. 

A sewing-press is used to attach the sheets to 
the bands or cords. The sewer places the back sewing, 
edge of the sheet in contact with the cords, opens 
the sheet in the middle, and a needle and thread 
passing to and fro sews it to the cords. The thread 
passes twice as many times through the back of 
each sheet as there are cords, in order to twist the 
thread around each cord and to unite the cords 
and the sheet. The threads are all fastened to 
the cords and to each other. The stitch by which 
the thread passes from one sheet to another is 
known as "■ kettle-stitch.^! 

After the end papers, or the papers which are to rpj.jjjjj^jjj 
form the inside of the cover, are attached, the book 
is passed through the trimming-machine, to make 
the edges true. Many books are now left with 
uncut edges ; in others the sheets are trimmed only 
at the top. 

The backs are then glued. The glue holds the q^^^^^ 
sections together, increases the strength of the 



220 



FORWARDING 



Rounding. 



Backing. 



The hollow 
back. 



volume, and keeps the back true during the pro- 
cesses of rounding and backing. The book, placed 
between two pieces of binders' board, is put into 
a press, with the back exposed; hot glue is applied 
to the back with a brush. The volume is then 
left to dry, no artificial heat being used. 

Rounding is the next operation. The back is 
made convex, the front edges concave, the curve of 
the front corresponding exactly with that of the 
back. To round a book, it is hammered, and is 
changed from one side to the other until it has 
acquired the proper form. Books made with a, 
flat back have a tendency to spring forward. 

A thin bevel-edged board is laid on each side of 
the volume, parallel with the edge of the back. 
The book is then put into the backing-machine,, 
and receives the two ledges against which the sides 
of the case are to rest. 

To give a book a hollov/ back, a double layer of 
paper or cloth is inserted between the back of the 
cover and the back of the sheets, the outer layer 
being glued to the cover, the inner layer to the 
back of the sheets. As these layers are connected, 
only at their edges, they form a hollow when the 
book is opened. 

To strengthen the cover of a volume and also to 



FORWARDING 221 



give it a neat appearance, a headband is placed at The head- 
the top of the back of the book. This may be of 
silk or cotton cord, or a strip of vellum or paste- 
board. A similar band is often placed at the 
bottom of the volume. 

When books are to be either whole or half bound, 
that is when the outer surfaces are to be entirely whole bind- 

ing. 

covered or partly covered with leather, the boards 
are first attached to the book and the covers are 
put on afterwards. In cloth binding, or edition 
work, the boards are covered before they are added 2gf^ ^^^^' 
to the volume. The cloth is a special kind of 
cotton, woven for the use of bookbinders. By 
binders, the pasteboards which form the sides are 
known as the hoards, the leather or cloth as the 
cover, and the two together as the case. 

In cloth binding, after the headband is attached 
and the Hning paper put on the back, the case is Fasteniug 
pasted to the end papers placed at the beginning the case. 
and end of the volume. In leather binding, either 
whole, half, or three-quarter, the cords or strings 
which are left to hang loose a little distance be- 
yond the sides of the volume, are scraped thin 
and passed through holes pierced through the 
boards, and are fastened to the inner surface of 
the boards. 



FORWARDING 



Drying. 



Case-making. 



Stamping. 



After the books are attached to the cases, they 
are laid in the press and left to dry. This requires 
from eight to ten hours. When dry, they are taken 
out, examined, and wrapped. 

In case-making, the boards are first cut a little 
larger than the size of the sheets; the cloth is cut 
the proper size, somewhat larger than the boards, 
sufficient space being left between the boards to 
allow for the thickness of the book. Glue is apphed 
to the inner surface of the cloth, which is turned 
over the edges of the boards ; the case is then run 
through rubber rollers to make it smooth. To 
stamp the case, it is first sized, if this is neces- 
sary, after which gold-leaf is laid upon it. A 
workman, known as a stamper, feeds the cases into 
the embossing-press, which contains the die heated 
with live steam-heat. After the impression has 
been thus embossed, the loose gold is cleaned off, 
leaving the design in gold upon the case. Printing- 
ink is also used for stamping covers, the impression 
being given by a powerful steam job-press. 

To decorate leather-bound books with lines of 
gold-tooling, the leather is first moistened with a 
mixture of white of egg and water; the gold-leaf 
is applied with a hot metal wheel, which leaves a 
line of gold as it moves across the cover. 



FORWARDING 223 



The brass stamp containing the design for the 
side of the book sometimes consists of only one 
piece, the design having been made especially for 
the volume; but a pattern is often made up by 
combining a number of small dies. 

The edges of books are sometimes cut smooth 
and left white. Thej^ are also finished in various pinighin^ 
ways, either by coloring or by gilding. To color ^^® ®^^^^' 
the edges, a brush is dipped into a liquid containing 
some pigment, such as Venetian red or umber, 
and is struck hghtly against a stick held over CQio^nff 
the unbound volumes. This is the sprinkling 
process, which causes a shower of spots to fall on 
the edges of the book. An even tint is given by 
dipping a sponge into the liquid and passing it 
Hghtly over the edges. Marbling is produced by 
a floating mixture of colors in a vat. 

In gilding, thin gold-leaf is appHed to the edges Gilding, 
before the case is fastened to the volume. The 
front edges, which have been made flat instead of 
concave, are first scraped perfectly even ; they are 
then moistened with a mixture of white of egg and 
water; when the gold-leaf touches these damp 
edges, it adheres to them immediately. The mix- 
ture is sometimes made of black lead and thin glair. 
To burnish the edges, they are rubbed with a hard 
stone. 



mDEX 



(225) 



INDEX 



Ada Diuma, 52 
Adams, Isaac, 77, 80 
Adams, Joseph A., 110 
Adolph II., 29, 33 
Alcman, 135 
America, printing in, 49 
American Daily Advertiser, The, 54 
American Tj^e-Fomiders Com- 
pany, 58 
American Weekly Mercury, The, 53 
Anguerrand, 204 
Annunciation, The, 19 
Apocalypse of St. John, The, 20 
Applegath, Augustus, 81, 84 
Appleton and Company, D., 70 
Aquinas, Thomas, 32 
Amoux, 165 
Ars Memorandi, 20 
Ars Moriendi, 21, 24 
Assur-bani-pal, 7 
Assyria, 6, 125, 181 

Babylonia, 6, 125, 181 
Badier, Florimond, 203 
Bark, 127 
Barth, Henry, 64 
Bauzonnet, 205 
Bay Psalm Book, 50 
Bedford, Francis, 207 
Belz-Ni^dr^, 205 



Bensley, 78 

Berthelet, or Bartlet, Thomas, 196 

Bibles: 

Bamberg, or Pfister's, 30 

Forty-two Line, 30 

Mazarin, or Gutenberg's 
First, 30, 35 

Thirty-six Line, 30 
Biblia Pauperum, 20, 22, 24 
Bindings: 

Byzantine, 185 

cameo, 198 

cloth, 210, 212, 213 

commercial, 202, 210 

embroidered, 195 

enameled, 189 

half, 212 

leather, 188, 192 

monastic, 186 

peculiar, 208 

special, 191 

three-quarter, 212 

trade, 191 

velvet, 188, 202, 208 
Binny and Ronaldson, 58 
Blaeu, William Janson, 73 
Block-books, 17, 20 

editions of, 22 
Blocks, combination of, 211 
Board covers, 186, 201 



(227) 



228 



INDEX 



Bodleian Library, 26, 145 


Catholicon, The, 31 


Bodley, Sir Thomas, 201 


Caxton, WiUiam, 47 


Body-height, 62 


bindings of, 193 


Borrowdale mine, 169 


Cecilius Hermias, 10 


Boston Gazette, The, 53 


Century Magazine, The, printing 


Boston News-Letter, The, 53 


of, 87 


Boston Public Library, 70 


color plates of, 102 


Boyet, 204 


Charlemagne, 11 


Bradford, William, 50, 54, 145 


China, paper made in, 142 


Bradstreets, the, 214 


printing in, 15 


Branding, 11 


Church, Dr. William, 66 


British Museum, 10, 15, 134, 145, 


Cicero, 8 


195, 206 


Cincinnati Times, The, 86 


Brown Paper Company, L. L., 


Climaco, San Juan, 49 


158 


Cluny Museum, 189 


Bruce, David, 58, 108 


Clymer, George, 74 


Bruce, David, jr., 58 


Cobden-Sanderson, Mr., 215 


Bruce, George, 58 


Codex, 137, 183 


Brussels Print, The, 19 


Cologne Chronicle, The, 35 


Bullock, William, 86 


Constantine, 139 




Continuous web, the, 85 


Calamus, 128 


Corvinus, Mathias, 190 


Calendar of 1457, 31 


Cotton, John, 51 


Calendar or Almanac for 1460, 31 


Counter-punch, 59, 60 


Calenders, 154 


Count of Paris, 169 


Cambridge, Massachusetts, 49 


Creusner, Frederick, 42 


Cambridge University, printing 


Cromberger, Juan, 49 


press erected for, 83 


Curtis Publishing Company, 54, 89 


bindings of, 200 


Cuttle-fish, liquid of, 129, 171 


Canticum Canticorum {The Can- 


Cuzin, 205 


ticles), 20 


Cylinder machine, 153 


Cap6, 205 




Caro, 173 


Daily Courant, The, 54 


Caslon, William, 57 


Daily Graphic, The, 113 



INDEX 



Dance of Death, The, 21 

Dandy-roll, 152 

Daye, Stephen, 50 

Deckles, 152 

Demosthenes, 135 

Derome, 204 

De Thou, Jacques Auguste, 202, 
203 

De Vinne, Theodore L., 87 

De Worde, Wynkyn, 48 

Dialogue between Cato, Hugo, and 
Oliver, 31 

Dictes and Sayings of the Philoso- 
phers, 48 

Dictionary of the Latin Language, 
44 

Didot, the Messrs., 146 

Didot, St. Leger, 73 

Diether, 33 

Dioscorides, 171 

Diptychs, 184 

Doctrina Christiana, 49 

Donatus, ^lius, 25 

Donatus, The, 21, 25 

Donkin, Bryan, 165 

Doublures, 203 

Douceur, 204 

Doves Bindery, 215 

Dubuisson, 204 

Dunster, Henry, 50 

Duru, 205 

Du Seuil, 204 

Dutartre, 81 



Egypt, 8, 125, 127, 131, 181 
Electricity, printing by, 90 
Electrotypes, 110 
Eliot, John, 50, 52 

Indian Bible of, 50, 52 
Elzevir, 40, 43 

Endkrist,Der, {The Antichrist), 20 
England, printing in, 48 
Escala Espiritual para Llegar al 

Cielo, La, 49 
Eskimo, 123, 139 
Esparto, 147, 149 
Essonnes paper-mills, 146 
Estienne, 40, 43 
Eumenes II., 138, 183 
Euripides, 135 
Eves, the, 200 

Faber family, 170 

Fanfare style, 200 

Fang Mi-Chih, 142 

Figure del Testamento Vecchio, 22 

Films, 117 

Flammarion, M. Camille, 208 

Flat book, the, 183, 184 

Forwarding, 185, 217 

Foster, John, 50 

Foucault, 26 

Fourdrinier machine, 147, 151, 

153 
Fourdrinier, the Messrs., 146 
Frankfurter Journal, 53 
Frank Leslie's, 113 



230 



INDEX 



Franklin, Benjamin, 53, 54, 55, 


Harper's Weekly, 113 


58, 73, 74 


Harrison, Mr., 165 


Franklin, James, 53, 55 


Havana, first printing-press in, 50 


Freeman's Oath, The, 50 


Hebrews, writing materials of the. 


Frisket, 79 


127 


Fust, John, 28, 32 


Hessels, Mr., 37 




Hill, Sir Rowland, 85 


Game and Playe of the Chess, The, 


Hoe, Richard M., 83 


48 


Hoe, Robert, 80 


Garamond, Claude, 57 


Holbein, Hans, 196 


Gazette [de France], 53 


Homer, 135 


Ged, William, 108 


Horace, 14 


Genoux, 109 


Hyperides, 135 


Gharibu n-Hadith, 145 




Gilpin, Thomas, 147 


Illustrated London News, The, 113 


Gleason's Pictorial, 113 


Image prints, 17, 18 


Glover, Rev. Joss or Jesse, 49 


Inks: 


Golden Legend, The, 48 


ancient, 129, 171 


Gordon, George P., 76 


black, 171 


Gothic letter, 35, 39 


care of, 177 


Graffiti, 126 


colored, 173 


Greece and Rome, 125, 136 


copying, 175 


Green, Samuel, 52 


eosin, 173 


Greene, Mr. Friese, 90 


gold and silver fluids, 129 


Grolier, Jean, 196, 197 


indelible, 175 


Gruel, Leon, 205 


India, 174 


Gutenberg, John, 28, 35 


printing, 173 


later works of, 31 


sympathetic, 175 


tablets to memory of, 32 


Inking-balls, 74 




Inking-rollers, 82 


Half-tone plates, 114 


Ink-stains, removing, 176 


Hardy-Meunil, 205 


Intaglio printing, 45 


Harley, Robert, 205 


Isocrates, 135 


Harper and Brothers, 70, 82 


Italic letter, 38 



INDEX 



231 



Jagor, Mr. F., 128 




London Journal, The, 110 


Japan, printing in, 16 




London Times, The, 54, 78, 80, 


Jenson, Nicolas, 38 




84,86 


John of Genoa, 31 




Lortic, 205 


John Rylands Librar}^, 19 






Johnson, Marmaduke, 52 




MacKellar, Smiths, and Jordan, 58 


Johnson, William M., 58 




Mainz, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 38, 144 


Junius, 36 




Maioli, Tommaso, 196, 197 


Justinian, 10 




Manual de Adultos, 49 
Manuscripts written on paper, 


Keimer, Samuel, 54 




145, 146 


Kelmscott Press, 39 




Manutius, Aldus, 38, 40, 196 


Koberger, Anthony, 40, 42 




Mapes's Magazine, 110 


Koenig, Friedrich, 78 




Marinoni, 86 


Koster Legend, The, 36 




Marius-Michel, M., 203, 205 


Koster, Lourens Janszoon, 


35 


Martial, 14 

Mary Engraving, The, 19 


Lead-pencils, 168 




Maryland, 50 


Leaves, 128 




Master-type, 60 


Le Gascon, 203 




Materials for printing, lack of 


Leighton, Archibald, 213 




suitable, 12 


Leighton, Robert, 209 




Matrices made by electrotyping. 


Le Monnier, 204 




61 


Letter of Indulgence, of 


Pope 


Matrix, 60, 61 


Nicholas v., 29 




Matthew of Cracow, 32 


Letter of Indulgence of 1461 


31 


Matthews, Mr. William, 214 


Lewis, Charles, 207 




Mazarin, Cardinal, 191 


Linen cloth, 128 




Mazarin Library, 30, 191 


Line-plates, 115 




Medici family, 190 


Lithography, 4 




Mergenthaler machine, or Lino- 


Lloyd's Weekly London 


News- 


type, 67, 68 


paper, 86 




Mexico, printing in, 49 


London Daily Universal Register, 


Milk for Babes, 51 


The, 54 




Mirahilia Rorrm, 21 



232 



INDEX 



Mirror of the Clergy, 31 


New York Sun, 81 


Mitchel, William H., 66 


New York Tribune, 87, 90 


Mitchell, Gillott, and Mason, 166 


Nicholas V., Pope, 29 


Montevideo, 50 


Nicholson, William, 79 


Moors, the, 144 


Nineveh, library at, 6 


Moret or Moretus, John, 45 


Nuremberg Chronicle, The, 42 


Morris, William, 39 




Mould, 60, 61 


Offset, 89, 101 


Moxon, Joseph, 57 


Ojibwa Indians, 128 




Ostraka, 126 


Napier, 79 


Oxford University, bindings of. 


National Library of Paris, 26, 31, 


200 


135, 203 




Nelson, Thomas, 85 


Pablos, Juan, 49 


New England Courant, The, 53 


Padeloup, 204 


New England Primer, The, 51 


Paper: 


Newspapers : 


classes of, 159 


"collecting," 97 


deckle-edged, 159 


color-printing, 97 


driers, 153 


consecutive processes in print- 


laid, 156 


ing, 94 


loading, 154 


driers, 100 


loft-dried, 153 


early, 52 


machine-dried, 153 


folders, automatic, 87 


names of, 143 


insets, 97 


preparation of stock, 148 


late news, 103 


shading, 155 


making ready, 98 


sizing, 154, 158 


offset sheet, 101 


staples, 147 


output in an hour, 96 


surface-coating, 155 


overlay, 98 


water-marks, 152, 157 


plates for, 117 


wove, 156 


register of the colors, 100 


Paper-making, by hand, 156 


regulating the flow of ink, 101 


by machinery, 149 


New York Gazette, The, 53 


Papyri, discoveries of, 135 







INDEX 233 


Papyrus : 






Plantin, Christopher, 40, 44 


Harris, 134 






Plantin, Mus^e, 46 


manufacture of 


papyrus 


Platen, 72 


paper, 133 






Plato, 135 


names of, 131 






Playing-cards, 17 


paper, 132 






Pliny, 124, 133, 138, 171 


plant, 131 
Prisse, 135 






Polyglot Bible, 45 








Poor Richard's Almanac, 55 


rolls, 134 








Parchment : 






Postboy, The, 54 
Potsherds, 125 


kinds of, 139 






Precious stones, 185, 187 


preparation of skins, 
vegetable, 140 


140 




Priestley, Dr., 165 


Patrie, La, 84 






Printing-presses : 


Payne, Roger, 207 






Adams, 77, 80 
Blaeu, 73 


Peking Gazette, 53 






Bullock, 86 


Pennsylvania Gazette, The, 


54 




Columbian, 74 


Penny Magazine, 113 






Cottrell, 88 


Pensi 






Cylinder, 77 


barrel, 165 






Donkin and Bacon, 82 


fountain, 167 






for book-work, 90 


gold, 166 






for illustrated work, 87 


metal, 164 






Franklin, 74 


quill, 163 






Gordon, 76 


reed, 128, 166 






Goss, 90 


steel, 165 






Gutenberg, 72 


Pergamum, 138, 183 






Hoe — Combination Octuple 


Perry, James, 165 






Multi-color, 101 


Peru, printing in, 49 






Double-Supplement, 87 


Philip II., 45, 191 






Electrotype Multi-color, 


Photography, printing by 


,92 




98 


Pi Shing, 15 






Electrotype Rotary Per- 


Pius II., Pope, 33 






fecting, 90 



INDEX 



Printing-presses — Continued. 
Hoe — Improved Double Quad- 
ruple Combination Oc- 
tuple, 96 
Octuple, 87 
Quadruple, 87 
Sextuple, 87 

Single large cylinder, 80 
Web-perfecting, 86 
Job or Treadle, 75, 76 
Koenig, 79, 81 
Miehle, 89 
of wood, 72 
Perfecting, 80 
Power, 75, 81 
Ruggles, 76 
Stanhope, 73 
Stop-cylinder, 81 
Treadwell, 76 
Type-revolving, 83 
Walter, 86 
Washington, 74 
Psalter of 1457, 33 
Ptolemy Epiphanes, 138 
Puhlick Occurrences, 53 
Public Ledger, 83 
Pugillaria, 182 
Punch, 59, 60 
Purgold, 205 

Quintilian, 8 

Recueil des Histoires de Troyes, 
47 



Reynes, John, 194 

Ricardo, Antonio, 49 

Robert, Louis, 73, 146 

Rocks, 123 

Roger of Sicily, 146 

Rolls, Greek and Roman, 182 

Roman letter, 38 

Rosenberg, Frederick, 66 

Roulette, 211 

Ruette, Mace, 203 

Rust, Samuel, 74 

St, Bridget, 19 

St. Christopher, 18 

St. Dorothea and St. Alexis, 20 

St. Jerome, 25 

St. Nicolas de Tolentino, 19 

St. Sebastian, Martyrdom of, 19 

Samarkand, 143, 145 

Sardanapalus, 7 

Saturday Evening Post, The, 54 

Sauer, Christopher, 58 

Sawn back, the, 206 

Schoeffer, Peter, 33 

Scientific American, 90 

Sepia, 176 

Skins of animals, 127 

Smith, Peter, 74 

Sotheby, 21 

Speculum Humance Salvationis, 

21 
Speech of Father Abraham, 56 
Spencer Library, 18, 207 



INDEX 



235 



Stamps : 






Tooling, 195 


heraldic, 193 






Tory, Geoffroy, 196 


metal, 9 






Tory plate, 211 


panel, 193 






Trautz, 205 


pictorial, 194 






Treadwell, Daniel, 76 


roll, 194 






Treatise on the Celebration of the 


wooden, 9 






Mass, A, SI 


Stanhope, Earl of, 7c 


1,108 




Treatise on the Necessity of Coun- 


Stephens of London, 


172 




cils, A, 31 


Stereot3'pe plates, curved. 


84 


Treatise on Reason and Con- 


Stereotyping, 108 






science, A, 32 


papier-mach6 process 


109 


Ts'ai Lun, 143 


plaster process, 


108 




Tympan, 79 


Stikeman, Mr., 214 






Type-casting, by hand, 63 


Stilus, 123, 125 






b)^ machinery, 58, 62 


Stoi^ of the Blessed V 


irgin, 


20 


Type-founding, 57 


Strasburg, 28, 35 






Type-metal, of what made, 59 


Summary of the Articles c 


/ Faith, 


Type-mould, 28 


32 






Tj^esetting, by hand, 65 


Supercalenders, 154 






by machinery, 66 
Typography, 3, 4 


Tablets: 






invention of, 27 


clay, 6, 125 






spread of, 37 


leaden, 124, 183 








stone, 123, 127 








wax, 125, 182 






"Van der Linde, Dr., 30 


wooden, 124 






Van Eyck, Jan, 13 


Tate, 144 






Vavassore, Giovanni Andreas, 


Theodoric, 11 






22 


Theophrastus, 131 






Vellum, 139 


Thibaron, 205 






Venice, printing in, 38, 40, 


Thouvenin, 205 






196 


Thucydides, 135 






Virginia documents, 50 



236 INDEX 


Watts, John, 108 


Ximenes, Cardinal, 191 


Weekly Newes, 53 


Xylography, 3, 4 


White, Elihu, 58 
Williamson, Peregrine, 165 


Young and Delcambre, 66 


Wood-fibre, 148 


Zahn, >Ir. Otto, 214 


Wood-pulp, 148 


Zell, Ulrich, 37 



Mor M 1901 



i^OV 9 1901 



Iiiinnii 



'jl'il'jl 'v'l 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS « 

021 653 718 A 



"liiiiiiii 



!i;i:|iiii|i 



:' ''ll'i 



i|li 



